Sam Abuelsamid (00:01)
This is episode four hundred and sixty three of wheel bearings. I am Sam Abuelsamid from Telemetry.

Nicole Wakelin (00:09)
And I am Nicole Wakelin.

Sam Abuelsamid (00:11)
And Robbie is in transit right now in in New York from the airport to his hotel for

Nicole Wakelin (00:20)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (00:21)
some event or other. And so and and his his regular phone is is not working because apparently T Mobile is down in at least in the New York area. I don't know because I quit T Mobile a few weeks ago and switched back to Verizon.

Nicole Wakelin (00:36)
I heard it's a nationwide thing that depending I heard some people on the west coast complaining that they had their T mobile down, so I don't know, or maybe their numbers were East I don't know, I don't know. But anyway, yeah, it's a thing.

Sam Abuelsamid (00:46)
Well, I I

you know, I had been on T Mobile for like twelveish years and got a got a notification from them a few weeks ago saying, You know, you've been on your plan too long. We're gonna retire that plan. We're gonna move you to another plan that's gonna be more expensive. And I said, No thank you and it turns out

Nicole Wakelin (01:07)
No thank you. Goodbye.

Sam Abuelsamid (01:08)
like the the day before I had just seen a thing where Verizon was offering new plans for

for people switching over if you bring your own phone and you're switching from another carrier that saved me like sixty bucks a month and I said, I can do that. So I went back to Verizon.

Nicole Wakelin (01:23)
Done. There you go.

That's on my it's funny, it's on my to-do list to actually look at phones because I haven't checked in so long. I've been with ATT forever. And I kind of thought, should I be still here? Is this the right plan for me? So it's on my my to-do list of things that you know as they're grown up, you think I should do that, and then you never do until they do to me what they just what T-Mobile just did to you. Nicole, your plan's going up. Bye.

Sam Abuelsamid (01:48)
Yeah. So so

see ya T Mobile. so not sure what what Robbie was driving, but he will he's gonna join us in progress, probably in about twenty minutes or so, hopefully.

Nicole Wakelin (02:03)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (02:04)
but in the meantime, I we were just talking before we started that one of the people that does scheduling here in the Detroit area has been

Somewhat less than helpful of late. so I had nothing nothing scheduled last week. So I drove my car for a week. I drove my nineteen ninety Mazda Miata.

Nicole Wakelin (02:26)
Perfect. And

how was your nineteen ninety Mazda Miata, Sam?

Sam Abuelsamid (02:32)
It was

fantastic. I love that little car. It is a great little car.

Nicole Wakelin (02:37)
How much power does a nineteen ninety Mazda Miata actually have? Do you know the specs on that?

Sam Abuelsamid (02:42)
The the original

spec for the one point six liter four cylinder naturally aspirated with five speed manual transmission was one hundred and sixteen horsepower. That was thirty six years ago.

Nicole Wakelin (02:54)
So today mmm a little less probably.

Sam Abuelsamid (02:56)
Well, I mean th the the the pre the previous

owner did put a racing bead intake on there. so

Nicole Wakelin (03:03)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:04)
that might have added two or three horsepower to it. So it's probably

Nicole Wakelin (03:07)
And then

Sam Abuelsamid (03:08)
still somewhere in that hundred and ten to a hundred and fifteen, hundred and twenty horsepower range. You know. Which

Nicole Wakelin (03:11)
Okay. Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:14)
is to say, not much. But you know what? It

Nicole Wakelin (03:16)
But you're not

you don't buy that because you won horsepower, you buy that because fun.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:21)
Yeah. You know, the car only weighs just over two thousand pounds. So, you

Nicole Wakelin (03:25)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:25)
know, it doesn't really matter. It it's it's a hoot to drive. so

Nicole Wakelin (03:30)
What colour is your Miata?

Sam Abuelsamid (03:32)
it is technically white. So if if if you

Nicole Wakelin (03:34)
White, okay. Technically

Sam Abuelsamid (03:36)
get to the paint, it's the paint is white. but i it has a wrap on it right now. It has

since before I bought it. one of these days I want to get that replaced. and so right now it's sort of a

battleship gray, sort of silver silvery grey. Like a a darker gray

Nicole Wakelin (03:55)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (03:56)
color. and the the the wrap still looks great. You know, it I mean it it is actually held up really well for over ten years now. but up

Nicole Wakelin (04:05)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (04:06)
I wanna get that stripped off and either either get it repainted in mariner blue, which is you know

Nicole Wakelin (04:11)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (04:11)
when they first launched the Miata in nineteen ninety, they had three colors. They had red, white and this mariner blue. And the Mariner blue is a great color.

Nicole Wakelin (04:20)
I'm looking it up right this

Sam Abuelsamid (04:21)
Yeah. And

Nicole Wakelin (04:22)
minute.

Sam Abuelsamid (04:22)
the other option is to find a wrap that is as close to that color as possible. Yeah. Yeah, it's a fantastic color. yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (04:29)
I love that color. That's pretty. I love that.

Sam Abuelsamid (04:35)
So you know the car, you know, it's it's the basic Miata, you know, it doesn't have any ABS, doesn't have any traction control, doesn't have any fancy driver assist features.

I actually have this T shirt that is it's a s it's a drawing of the Mi of the Miata first generation Miata cockpit and has all the driver assist features labeled. So there's you know, surround view, which is just literally looking around you.

Nicole Wakelin (05:07)
Ha ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (05:08)
you know, there's lane keeping assist pointing to the steering wheel. you know, there's blind spot monitors pointing to the mirrors, you know, that sort of thing. So it

Nicole Wakelin (05:12)
I like it. Cute.

Sam Abuelsamid (05:17)
is it is all completely analog, well

Almost completely analog. It does have electronic fuel injection on the engine. Yeah. So that it's a it's a it's a five speed manual, yes. The the only way it should be.

Nicole Wakelin (05:25)
Is it a manual? Did you say is it a manual trans? Okay. Excellent. Excellent.

Sam Abuelsamid (05:32)
and you know, two seats, you know, the the top, you know, you can I don't have to get out or anything. I don't have to press any buttons if I want to put the top up for some reason, which the only reason I ever put the top up is if I'm washing the car. The rest of the time the top is down.

Nicole Wakelin (05:46)
That's exactly the

right that is perfectly the right answer and the way it should be for Miyada.

Sam Abuelsamid (05:50)
Yeah. Yeah. As soon

as soon as it's dry, p put the top down and it stays that way.

Nicole Wakelin (05:56)
How cold will you drive it with the top still down? How cold outside? Forty degrees, that's her sp

Sam Abuelsamid (06:00)
about forty degrees. because it's on summer it's on summer tires.

Nicole Wakelin (06:04)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (06:05)
So some you know, so it's not even all season tires, it's summer tires. it

Nicole Wakelin (06:10)
so you can't really go less than that, yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (06:11)
yeah, so forty forty's about the minimum. And for you know, at forty with the heater on, it's actually quite comfortable to drive. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (06:18)
Yeah.

one of my favorite things when I have a convertible is to literally if it's cold, if it's that like especially at night, put the top down, put a scarf on, put some gloves on, and go for a drive anyway when it's just a little bit too cold, but it's perfect because you blast the heat and it's really kind of fun. Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (06:35)
Yeah, I just, you know, put a hat on, put you know, put

a jacket on, some gloves and and go. And, you know, I have driven it, you know, it's never been driven in winter. It's been in Michigan its entire history. I'm the third owner.

Nicole Wakelin (06:45)
Mm-hmm. When did you buy it?

Sam Abuelsamid (06:48)
I bought it in twenty seventeen. So I've had it for l about almost nine and a half years.

Nicole Wakelin (06:52)
Seventeen. Okay. Okay, so you've had it for a while.

Sam Abuelsamid (06:56)
yeah, I bought it I bought it from the guy who was actually now my boss. He was a for he was a friend and former coworker. We worked together at Ford

Nicole Wakelin (07:01)
that's funny. Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (07:03)
years ago.

And

Nicole Wakelin (07:04)
Yep.

Sam Abuelsamid (07:05)
he owns the company that I work for now. He owns telemetry. and so like he had bought it after he left Ford. And he had it for for a few years and then for inexplicable reasons, he decided to buy this nineteen sixty nine Chevy C ten pickup that had a modified small block V8 in there. And at the time,

Nicole Wakelin (07:27)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (07:28)
you know, they were living in a house with a two car garage. His wife said, Okay

My car goes on this side of the garage. You can have whatever you want on the other side of the garage. Anything else has got to go outside. And if you don't want to park it outside, it goes.

Nicole Wakelin (07:43)
It it's out.

Sam Abuelsamid (07:44)
and he knew that I wanted the Miata. And so he said, Hey, do you still want to buy the Miata? And I looked over at my wife and said, Can I buy the Miata? And she said, She said, Absolutely. And so

Nicole Wakelin (07:55)
Awesome.

Sam Abuelsamid (07:55)
the the next day, you know, we went to the bank, grabbed the cash, went over to Craig's house. I gave him the cash.

He gave me the title and I drove off and never looked back. yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (08:06)
Boom, done.

Sam Abuelsamid (08:07)
So, you know, it is it is so much fun to drive. the other

Nicole Wakelin (08:11)
I love

the Miata. I and you know what? It would be something that I would consider buying one day, except well maybe good or bad, depending on your point of view. Russ would never ride with me in it because it's just a little too tight for him at his height. And

Sam Abuelsamid (08:22)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (08:23)
it's not even his head, it's his legs. He doesn't have enough leg room. So his knee his legs are bent so one knee hits the center console and the other knee bonks against the door. So his knees are uncomfortable. He's like, the few times we had he's like, I hate this car. I'm like, you're just gonna have to hate it 'cause I'm driving it or taking separate cars because it's so fun to drive.

But if you're just the right height, like I'd imagine Robbie might be a little on the tall side for it too.

Sam Abuelsamid (08:45)
Yeah, I think Robbie

Robbie has said in the past that he's a little bit too tall for the Miata. And that's that is the one downside to the Miata. It's you're kind of

Nicole Wakelin (08:51)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (08:52)
you know, it's a small car so you're limited in in space, you know, in terms of height, you know, who can fit in it. you

Nicole Wakelin (08:59)
Mm. Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (09:00)
know, I'm about five eleven. I'm like at the kind of the upper limit of somebody that'll fit comfortably in there. yeah. Yeah. Yes. So

Nicole Wakelin (09:06)
Yeah. So you're five eleven and you're fine. It's totally comfortable for you. Okay, there you go.

Sam Abuelsamid (09:10)
it fits me perfectly. you know.

Anybody much much taller than that or certainly, you know, if you had longer legs, even if you were my height, but like you know, I'm long in the torso, you know, if you

Nicole Wakelin (09:23)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (09:23)
ha if you were shorter in the torso, longer in in the legs, you probably wouldn't be comfortable in the Miata. But it yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (09:29)
Yeah. And that's it. Russ has it's all his knees bunking

onto the sides of the of the the car itself. That it it's not he has plenty of headroom, weirdly. It's just his legs. So

Sam Abuelsamid (09:38)
Yeah, well, you know, funny how

that works when there's no top, you know, you put the top down, you have all the headroom in the world.

Nicole Wakelin (09:41)
Well, if the top is up even he can still

on those rare occasions when you put the top up. But yeah. So I love the Miata fun car.

Sam Abuelsamid (09:48)
Yeah. yeah,

so you know, I had I had to go out to Michigan Speedway last week for a forward event that

you were supposed to be at.

Nicole Wakelin (09:56)
I was supposed to

I was supposed to be there, but the stupid we had weather and my flight that left Boston was delayed two hours and delayed two hours and then eleven delayed another hour. And at that point I was getting into Michigan at like eleven thirty at night and this was just a turn and burn program. That was a one day I'm like, this is gonna be ridiculous. I'm gonna be so tired, I won't be able to see straight. So unfortunately I had to cancel and like this is just getting silly. So stupid rainstorms.

Sam Abuelsamid (10:23)
Yeah, that happens in the summertime.

Nicole Wakelin (10:25)
It does happen.

Sam Abuelsamid (10:27)
so, you know, I you know, the the Miata is my toy. You know, I don't use it for commuting, you know, I take it out, you know, a couple times a week just to go out and bomb around. you know,

Nicole Wakelin (10:38)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (10:39)
I don't take it on long road trips most of the time. so you know

Nicole Wakelin (10:44)
Would you?

Would it be comfortable enough? Would you actually take it if you had a reason to?

Sam Abuelsamid (10:48)
Yeah, I could.

Nicole Wakelin (10:50)
Yeah?

Sam Abuelsamid (10:50)
I could. You know, I mean there's there's enough there's enough the trunk is big enough, you know, to hold you know, I could I could put a carry on bag in there or put a big duffel bag

Nicole Wakelin (10:58)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (10:59)
in there, you know, or a couple of duffel bags in there. so yeah, I could I could use it for a road trip if I wanted to. you know, I sometimes you know, take the d take one of the dogs or both of the dogs and strap them in there and

Nicole Wakelin (11:12)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (11:13)
you know, take you know, go for a ride. R

our first corgi that we had when I first got it, Rosie, she loved riding in that car. Yeah, she

Nicole Wakelin (11:19)
Yeah. cute.

Sam Abuelsamid (11:22)
she would you know, she would sit in the passenger seat and she was she was just tall enough that she could sit up in the passenger seat and look out over the windshi over over the the dashboard and see straight out or, you know, stick her head out the side. She loved riding in that and I I took her for a ride her last day before she before we lost her. and then

Nicole Wakelin (11:45)
so

she had one last fun ride in the Miata, that's amazing.

Sam Abuelsamid (11:48)
Yep.

And then Daisy wasn't wasn't I mean she was fine. She didn't mind it, but she wasn't as enthusiastic about it. Morty and Patty definitely like riding in that car more though. yeah. Mm-hmm.

Nicole Wakelin (11:57)
They do. That's cute. Do you put you can put both of them in there? That must

be hilarious to see the two of them in there. Like you, two corgies squished into a miata.

Sam Abuelsamid (12:02)
Yeah, I've Yeah. No, I've I've taken both

to to go to Cars and Coffee.

Nicole Wakelin (12:09)
That's awesome.

Sam Abuelsamid (12:10)
yeah. so you know the that the Miata when it first came out, you know, it launched in the fall of nineteen eighty nine. Mine was actually built in October of eighty nine, according to the sticker in there. and when it when it when it first went on sale as a nineteen ninety model year car, it was thirteen thousand dollars. And

Nicole Wakelin (12:30)
Wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (12:31)
So I think I've you I've I've told this story before, but when when I graduated from college in nineteen ninety, you know, I wanted to buy myself a new car. At that point I was driving, you know, an older Chev GMC S fifteen pickup, you know, that was great for going to school, you know, back and forth to school 'cause I was driving back and forth between what was then GMI, you know, Kettering University and my home in in Ontario, you know, several times a you know, a year.

And so it was easy to throw all my stuff in the back of the truck. I wanted to get rid of that and buy a car. and so my short list was the Miata, five liter L X Mustang and the Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo, the first generation eclipse. And

Nicole Wakelin (13:11)
Okay. Hmm. Mm. And how did

the Miado win? Was it just the first one you could get?

Sam Abuelsamid (13:19)
I well, I the I the first one I knocked off the list was the eclipse. Yeah, it was good but it wasn't quite what I wanted. And then it came

Nicole Wakelin (13:27)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (13:28)
down to Mustang versus Miata and I decided well, I need a car that I'm gonna be driving year round. And so I I decided to go with the Mustang instead of the Miata because I didn't have a garage. I was living in an apartment at the time. And so I went with the Mustang. And you know, I I had that car for eight years, loved it.

but I always wanted one of those first generation Miattas and when I got the chance to

Nicole Wakelin (13:50)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (13:50)
buy this one. So it funny enough, the the Mustang and the Miata were about the same price at that time. So I had the five

Nicole Wakelin (13:57)
That's crazy.

Sam Abuelsamid (13:58)
liter LX Mustang, I paid thir thirteen thousand for it. The Miata was about the same price. And when you r run it through you know, inflation calculator, the price today, you know, which starts at about thirty thousand dollars w

Nicole Wakelin (14:12)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (14:13)
wor works out.

to about thirteen thousand dollars in nineteen ninety dollars. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty pretty pretty steady.

Nicole Wakelin (14:16)
Really? So it's kinda held so that's cool.

So when that first generation Miata came out, my husband's aunt purchased one and it was green. Like I wanna say it was like a British racing green. I don't know, I'm sure that's not what it was, but that really dark green. Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (14:30)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think ninety two or ninety three they had a special edition that was British Racing Green.

Nicole Wakelin (14:36)
It's this beautiful dark green and I remember we were she lived in Gloucester and we had rollerblades and we were rollerblading around and

She came to find us wherever we were rollerblading when we were visiting and Russ lost it on a hill, like just could not slow himself down because he didn't know where we were and was he went careening down this hill and Judy was at the bottom of the hill and he f like right into the Miata, like

boom

into the back and like in sap into the bat, you know, into the car. Car was not hurt, but I re he was had some bruised some bruised knees. But I just remember we were like in our early twenties and I thought, dear god almighty.

Please don't have ruined Judy's car. Please don't have ruined Judy Judy's car. Here, Russ is like scraped up knees. He's bleeding. I'm like, is the car okay? I'm like, wait, cause you I don't have to pay for. Is the car okay?

Sam Abuelsamid (15:23)
You you gotta have your priorities straight.

Nicole Wakelin (15:25)
Yes. And then once I realized the car was in peace, I'm like, and Russ, are you okay? Things haven't changed much over the years in that regard.

Sam Abuelsamid (15:33)
Yeah, that's right. so

yeah, so you know, I I've had this car for, you know, nine years now. and I I still love it. You know, I'm I have no intention of ever letting this car go. Yeah, and it's been

Nicole Wakelin (15:45)
Nice.

Sam Abuelsamid (15:47)
it's been dead reliable. you know, I had the the timing belt replaced a couple years ago at sixty thousand miles

Nicole Wakelin (15:53)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (15:53)
like you're supposed to and had I'd had to have you know, clutch cylinder replaced last year, but yeah, that

Nicole Wakelin (15:59)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (16:00)
was that was no big deal. It was a couple of hundred bucks.

Nicole Wakelin (16:02)
Nice.

Sam Abuelsamid (16:03)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (16:03)
Well well, I didn't have a didn't have a car either, but I did drive a car quite a bit. So I spent more time driving Russ's Wrangler P hev last week because I had to pick up the daughter at the airport and then we went for an adventure in the White Mountains and she drove it for a little bit. and you know what? It's fun. Like we opened the top up a little bit and it's fun, but it is just definitely not a road trip car. Like it was only

a two hour drive we were going up to in the White Mountains. I think it was about two hours. I'll tell you by the end of that two hours there and back. It was like, okay, I'm done with this. 'Cause it's just not smooth and it it just doesn't ha it's it's handling has not gotten any better in the five years now I think that we've owned it. but you know it does have all the personality in the world, like doing the Jeep Wave with everybody everywhere. Everyone's you know, has the doors off, the top down, everything.

Sam Abuelsamid (16:53)
Do you have any rubber ducks on the dashboard?

Nicole Wakelin (16:56)
we have rubber ducks on the dashboard. Yes. I think my favorite rubber duck is actually he got this funky thing because you have too many ducks. What do you do with your ducks? And it sort of hangs from the bar where the speakers are across your head. And it's this little thing that you can pop the ducks into. And we have one duck that looks like like he's a Trojan. Like he's got like the hat kind of thing and a shield and a little sword. He's a little Trojan duck. He's

Sam Abuelsamid (17:16)
Ha ha ha.

Nicole Wakelin (17:18)
really cute, like a Trojan sol soldier. I love that duck.

And we have one that looks like he's an Easter bunny and has Easter bunny ears. I like the Easter bunny duck of the many, many, many ducks we have received over the years. But you know, it is f it is a fun summer car, you know, when you're just driving slow speed on in beautiful mountains and hot you know, it's gorgeous, but man, that sucker is not a road trip car. It's just not fun to road trip in it for that long. Two hours and I thought, Yep, I'm about done. Thank you. Goodbye.

Sam Abuelsamid (17:47)
Do you do you ever take

the doors off?

Nicole Wakelin (17:50)
He does something. In fact, he was talking about he wanted to have the doors off and he's thinking next weekend he might take them off 'cause we'll both be home. so he's thinking next weekend, assuming the weather's good. We're supposed to get some horrific rain. I don't know when it's supposed to begin and end. But yeah, he wants to take the doors off next weekend. He's been traveling a lot for work. and now he has a little break from the action so he can take his doors off and have some fun.

Sam Abuelsamid (18:12)
So one thing I I n noticed when I the first time I had one or one I think first time I had a JL, the current generation one, a few years

Nicole Wakelin (18:22)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (18:22)
back when it first came out, you know, I took the doors off just to see, you know, how h how challenging it was. And I went to drive somewhere to take photos of it. It was only like ten minutes from my house. And yeah, at forty miles an hour put the doors off.

Boy is it windy in that car.

Nicole Wakelin (18:43)
You you do not w I see people driving on the highway like that and I have n no

Sam Abuelsamid (18:47)
I don't know how they I mean, that would be really annoying.

Nicole Wakelin (18:50)
idea. No idea. I said to I like when he was talking about taking the doors off, I said, Okay, if we're like driving around town, we go drive around town? Like no more than forty-five? Are we keeping it? I do not want to drive in the highway in that car. I mean you could, but it would just be my gosh, it would rip the wind the would rip the skin off of your face coming at you from all directions. But people do it all the time.

I I

Sam Abuelsamid (19:11)
So

Nicole Wakelin (19:11)
I only like it on s like slower speeds on side roads and stuff.

Sam Abuelsamid (19:14)
Are are you allowed to plug it in yet? Or is it still do not plug in, do not

Nicole Wakelin (19:17)
we are allowed no, we are allowed to plug it in.

We can plug it in and we can charge it and it has reliably what's wood? It has reliably been doing so now for several months. We had the last we have the well it's not the last recall because there's another one. We had the

Sam Abuelsamid (19:33)
The most recent.

Nicole Wakelin (19:34)
most the most recent recall prior to the one we just got was the one that took care of the last of the problems so you could plug it in, you could charge it. you didn't have to worry about parking it outside.

I can't remember what the new recall is. In fact I'm sitting at Russ's desk so the paper's probably sitting here somewhere. If I look long enough I could probably find it. Could look, maybe it's been here. But yeah, but it's been it's been fine. charging up quite happily. In fact it just is charging right now 'cause we went out for lunch this afternoon and now it's charging in our driveway.

Sam Abuelsamid (20:07)
Yeah, I mean that that that's the one one problem with that plug in hybrid system on there is they've had a lot of recalls on those things.

Nicole Wakelin (20:16)
Well, and you know what? It's it's not and in fact my daughter noticed this because she drove it for a little bit while she was here and of course she doesn't ever drive it except when she's home, you know, so it's not something she ever gets used to. And she's had a hard time because it the transition sometimes, gas to electric, can be extremely rough and it catches you a little bit. So if it's about to transition is you hit the gas, which is something that kind of was one of those things that sort of is almost like old school, but it still happens with this car.

Where you get that little that slight delay is it's like, wait a minute, you need me to be in gas engine mode. Let me switch that. And you're thinking, Great, could you do it a little faster? Because I'm pulling into heavy traffic and I do not have two seconds to spare. So it freaked out a couple of times. but it was so that's it's it's that transition isn't smooth. I feel like in his car it's gotten a little bit rougher over time. Like it has not gotten any better for sure. But we were talking about it the other day and he said despite all the problems that

He's had with it, despite the drawbacks. He loves that car, Sam. He loves it. And he's talked about, you know, what would he do for his next car? 'Cause only five years old. We got some time with this. But at some point we'll need to get something else. And he said, I don't know, I I know that it defies all logic and reason, but I kinda want another Wrangler. That's sort of where he is right now. And I thought, if it makes you happy, sweetheart. so we'll see what happens by the time he needs to replace this. But I said he said, But you know, just

gas Wrangler. That or he wants to go with an E V. He wants to have an E V. I I it will not be my car. My p car is gonna be gassed for a little while. I got burned. I'm a little bit like PTSD on the E V thing.

Sam Abuelsamid (21:55)
As l as long as

long as he doesn't get a a Jeep recon, he'll probably be fine.

Nicole Wakelin (21:59)
gosh, yeah. No, I think I pretty much said I'm like, you will not look at that car. You don't even have to look at it. You can't drive it, you can't look at it, you can't go anywhere near it. So that's

Sam Abuelsamid (22:09)
Yeah and

Nicole Wakelin (22:10)
supposed to be by end of year, right? Is it end of year now? When is that?

Sam Abuelsamid (22:14)
Who knows? When whenever it shows up.

Nicole Wakelin (22:15)
'Cause originally it was like

it was like this year, then it was like

Sam Abuelsamid (22:19)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (22:19)
soon and then it's like, well by the end of the year I'm thinking, what does that mean? It's it's the end of July right now. Like we're

Sam Abuelsamid (22:25)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (22:25)
ha more than halfway through the year and I haven't heard anything about it, so I don't I don't know what's happening there.

Sam Abuelsamid (22:30)
They're they're they're busy

launching more and more, you know, various V eights. You know, they don't they don't have time for

Nicole Wakelin (22:35)
Goodness.

Sam Abuelsamid (22:36)
for, you know, anything like that. So

Nicole Wakelin (22:39)
Yeah. Well, let's say that's what it is. Sure. That's it. I saw something

Sam Abuelsamid (22:43)
Yeah. Tim Tim's

Nicole Wakelin (22:45)
about how the the Durango just had like its best sales year and so because of the Yeah, ever is it ever? Like the Durango,

Sam Abuelsamid (22:50)
Ever. Yeah. Yeah, the

Nicole Wakelin (22:53)
the ancient Durango. I'm like, you go, S U V

Sam Abuelsamid (22:56)
The

the current the current Durango has been around for fifteen years now. It launched in twenty eleven. Yeah,

Nicole Wakelin (23:01)
Is it has it really?

Sam Abuelsamid (23:02)
I mean it's had a couple of very minor refreshes, but it's still

Nicole Wakelin (23:06)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (23:06)
basically the same car it was in twenty eleven. And the

Nicole Wakelin (23:09)
Wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (23:11)
for the current generation, twenty twenty five was its best year yet. And the first half of this year was its best six month period yet.

Nicole Wakelin (23:20)
How funny

when you think about that because normally, you know, a car has really good sales as soon as it either because it's new, period the end,

Sam Abuelsamid (23:26)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole Wakelin (23:27)
or it's all new. They're coming into another generation. And the amount of money it takes to take a car from Gen one to gen two or gen two to gen three or to introduce a whole new car is mind boggling. The time, the energy, all that stuff.

I didn't do any of that. Now sales for this figure through the roof. That's like probably their biggest sales success that Stellantis has had. What's going on with the Durango? That's really kinda it's fun though. It's a fun car, you know?

Sam Abuelsamid (23:50)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean

as you know, as three row SUVs go, it's it's actually pretty good. It's it's not it's

Nicole Wakelin (23:57)
Right.

Sam Abuelsamid (23:57)
not a terrible vehicle. It's a decent platform. You know, it's kinda it's kinda like you know, with the the the old charger and Chrysler three hundred and and Challenger. You know, they were old, but they worked. You know, it was it was a decent decent architecture.

Nicole Wakelin (24:08)
Mm. They were fine. Yeah.

Like if you're looking from s you know, something some grand new, fantastic, amazing, whatever it is of the moment, okay, sure, it doesn't have that. But it's still a really nice car. It's roomy, it's fun to drive. Everything just pretty much works. You know, there's it it's just it's a good burly little SUV. I like it. So I'm kinda happy for it.

Sam Abuelsamid (24:30)
Mm. Yeah.

And they saw I think I think they currently only offer it with V eight engines. I don't think they offer it with a V six anymore. Or did they did they bring back for a while they were only doing

Nicole Wakelin (24:40)
I think you're r I believe you're right. Somehow I was

Sam Abuelsamid (24:44)
V eights. I don't I don't think they brought back the

Nicole Wakelin (24:47)
I

Sam Abuelsamid (24:47)
Penestar.

Nicole Wakelin (24:48)
I believe you're correct. I think you're correct on that. Are you Googling? You're doing your Google feel Okay, Russ's desk is

Sam Abuelsamid (24:52)
Let's see. Shopping tools, building price, Durango.

Nicole Wakelin (24:57)
very rickety. As soon as I go to search something, you can see it if you're watching it. My whole screen's like we're not having an earthquake. It's

Sam Abuelsamid (25:01)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (25:03)
just his screen is so huge it moves every time I touch the mouse.

Sam Abuelsamid (25:09)
Let's see. GT plus GT is the base model. What engines that I got?

Nicole Wakelin (25:18)
Did find it?

Sam Abuelsamid (25:19)
It

let's see, power here we go, powertrain. okay. So they did reintroduce the Penistar. So you can get it with the Penistar. But I think I think

Nicole Wakelin (25:26)
you can. Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (25:27)
the majority of sales are V eights.

Nicole Wakelin (25:31)
I mean, I would get it with a V eight. I also feel like the Pennistar, just the V six, you're gonna buy this car. It's it's not like this delicate, like elegant like SUV. It's scr, it's big, it's bold, everything's

Sam Abuelsamid (25:44)
It's a dodge.

Nicole Wakelin (25:45)
i it's a dodge. And if you're gonna get a dodge, get the V eight.

Sam Abuelsamid (25:50)
It you know, it

you can get it with a Hellcat still. You know. Remember when remember when they f

Nicole Wakelin (25:54)
I that you know what?

That is one of my favorite vehicles on the planet. Not the Hellcat in other but the Hellcat Durango, I love that. That was on my shopping list, honest to goodness, because there was zero reason for it. I'm like, why do I need a three-row SUV with all that horsepower? Well, the whole horsepower, obviously, because it's fun. But how am I rationalizing this big three-row SUV? I can't. I can't rationalize it. So I didn't get it, but man, every time I have driven that.

Sam Abuelsamid (26:22)
You you're getting prepared for when

when Rose and Reza get you some grandkids and then you can bomb around with the grandkids

Nicole Wakelin (26:27)
Exactly. If I have grandkids one day.

Sam Abuelsamid (26:29)
in your Hellcat Durango.

Nicole Wakelin (26:31)
That's it. So maybe I'll get rid of the BMW when they have gr when they have kids, and then I'll get myself a Hellcat. Like most grandmas get a grandma gold sedan, I'm gonna get a bright red Hellcat SUV. It won't have changed at all by that time

Sam Abuelsamid (26:41)
And and the way things are going is Dellantis right now. It'll st it'll still be around when No.

Nicole Wakelin (26:48)
either. Poor Stellantis. I just want them to figure their s themselves out. Like, come on, you guys, figure it out.

Sam Abuelsamid (26:55)
Yeah. all right, let's let's move on to some other stuff and

Nicole Wakelin (27:00)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (27:01)
when when Robbie gets here if he's driving anything we'll we'll slot that in. so

Nicole Wakelin (27:06)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (27:07)
you know, one of the things about buying EVs, one of the challenges with EVs has been resale value or lack thereof. you know, E Vs have tended to have very very very strong depreciation over the years.

Nicole Wakelin (27:23)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (27:24)
which

If you're not buying new, it's fantastic. I mean, you know, we we made out like bandits last year when we bought our EV6. You know, we we got

Nicole Wakelin (27:34)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (27:35)
we got let's see, we bought a twenty three twenty twenty three EV6 all-wheel drive wind, you know, that was fifty-five thousand dollars new. We got it for twenty-seven thousand dollars with thirteen and a half thousand miles on it.

Nicole Wakelin (27:47)
Yeah, the d

the deals and I know so many people who bought EVs of late and that's what they did. They said we're buying a used one because the the new one is out of our budget. The used one below our budget. It there's there's some screaming deals on used EVs right now.

Sam Abuelsamid (28:04)
Well, they're they're less screaming than they used to be. so recurrent

Nicole Wakelin (28:07)
Yes.

Sam Abuelsamid (28:08)
is a is a pretty interesting site. I I don't know if you've ever checked out recurrent. but

Nicole Wakelin (28:11)
Mm-hmm. I have.

Sam Abuelsamid (28:14)
you know, if you if you have an E V you know, and it's got connectivity, you can connect it, you can create a recurrent account and you can track your your information on you know your charging information on there and they you know, they they collect information from hundreds of thousands of EVs globally. We

We actually Craig Cole and I just did an interview with the CEO of recurrent a couple of week about a week and a half ago for another podcast for the Green Cars podcast. but you know, they they also work with dealers, and you know, to you know, so they get help they provide health information on EVs, you know, f to get you know, so they can get the right trade in values and also for when they're selling, you know, to to value the vehicles, right?

So

they've got all kinds of interesting data on the you know, both on the health of the the batteries and also on the the the valuations on used EVs. And you know, so like if you look at recurrence data, you know, they've found that, you know after a hundred thousand miles, EVs, you know, typically still have over ninety percent of their original capacity, with one distinct exception, which is the first generation Nissan Leaf, because it had that air cooled battery. But

they EV recurrent just put out a a report on valuations on used EVs. And typically they're they you know they go down. But since January of this year, the average used EV has gained five point one percent in value. when they compared it with the same makes, models, and model years in January and June across a hundred and eight combinations and their values went up. the

See biggest ones, used EVs under $20,000 in January are up nine point four percent. a twenty twenty three Chevy Bolt that averaged seventeen thousand seven hundred and eighteen in January, now averages twenty-one thousand two hundred and four. it's a twenty percent jump. so that's that's pretty good. and they say, you know, Cox Automotive is reporting the same thing. Their Mannheim wholesale index for e used EVs is up eleven point four percent year over year. And so when I saw this, I went.

Went an auto trader and looked for EVs, you know, similar mileage to the one we bought. and you know, because it's been a year, you know, so I picked twenty twenty four models with, you know, about you know, under twenty thousand miles. And actually the values are up by about four or five thousand dollars compared to what we paid. you know, cars that were going for twenty six, twenty seven thousand dollars are now thirty to thirty two thousand dollars.

Nicole Wakelin (31:00)
It's I mean, it makes sense if they're hard. They're still I th still think they're a great deal. You're still gonna get a way better deal than buying

Sam Abuelsamid (31:04)
Mm-hmm. yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (31:05)
new ones. Like it's but it's that I think there's a couple there's so many factors that go into that. And I think, you know, the price of gas definitely go into that because people want to get to EVs. And I think that so many EVs are just like new ones. The pricing is just a little out of reach for people. And you want and they're ready to try it. I think people are ready to give a go. And it's thinking, okay, if I can't give it a go in a new model.

if a used one'll do, more and more people are realizing that. Like you can get into one for a lot less. So the prices are creeping up. So the sooner if you're thinking about it, now rather than later, you know. But it makes sense in considering what, you know, sort of the curve of of adoption for EVs and what the market is doing with gas prices right now. Although the barrel of oil went down today, I think. So woohoo for those of us driving gas cars.

Sam Abuelsamid (31:56)
Yeah,

well I mean, you know, with gas being over four dollars a gallon in most of the country since the spring,

Nicole Wakelin (32:01)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (32:02)
you know, that's that has definitely helped E V sales, or at least most of them.

Nicole Wakelin (32:06)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (32:06)
Not all of Yeah, even even for new ones. There's been some some some that have got you know, sales have gone down, but a lot of others, like the the Toyota's and Subarus, their sales are way up. They're like double what

Nicole Wakelin (32:19)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (32:19)
they were a year ago. and

Yeah,

then you know, a lot of people, you know, took advantage of the rebates last summer, you know, and into September,

Nicole Wakelin (32:27)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (32:28)
you know, even on on used EVs and so took you know, that that was there was some pull ahead there on sales and so they they were able to you know, that they they had a drop off in the the latter part of the year, but now those are pop coming back as well. And then you've you've also got the all the lease returns on the twenty twenty three to twenty twenty five models that are

coming into used car lots. So yeah, if if you're interested in a used EV, now's definitely the time to get one, rather than

Nicole Wakelin (33:00)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (33:01)
rather than wait.

Nicole Wakelin (33:02)
Yeah. Yeah. Get it now. Get it while you can before they get pricier.

Sam Abuelsamid (33:08)
Yeah,

says the leaderboard for the most affordable at the most affordable end is includes the the Chevy Bolt, followed by the Kia E V six, the Bolt E V, the BMW I four and the BM Tesla Model Y. and then

Nicole Wakelin (33:26)
I'd get an

E V six. I think from that list. That would be the I w what would you get from that list, Sam?

Sam Abuelsamid (33:29)
Yeah.

definitely the E V six. I mean that is what we bought.

Nicole Wakelin (33:34)
that's right. Ha ha you would get

it even though. yes, I E Vs I I love the E V six. That would be it from You do? Isn't doesn't

Sam Abuelsamid (33:39)
Although I really like the I four as well. But it yeah, it's yeah, I like the I four.

Nicole Wakelin (33:43)
the I four have a funky style wait a minute, I gotta bring it up. I

Sam Abuelsamid (33:46)
It it

it does have a big beaver tooth grill, but you know, if you can get past that, it's actually really nice to drive. And it's a hatchback, so y you got good cargo space inside.

Nicole Wakelin (33:56)
but it's so

ugly. I just pulled it up, but it's so not pretty. It is not pretty. Just always from the back or from the side, never look at it head on. It's like

Sam Abuelsamid (33:59)
Just always walk up to it from behind and it's fine. Yeah. Yes, exactly.

Nicole Wakelin (34:05)
what am I thinking of Greek? Medusa. Don't ever look her right in the eye. Just don't look at the front. It's

Sam Abuelsamid (34:08)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (34:10)
the Medusa of cars. Don't look at the front.

Sam Abuelsamid (34:15)
let's see. What else? all right, next up.

yeah, Inside EVs had an article. that was this is actually what linked to the recurrent article. they had yeah the five best used EV deal EV deals for range. so what did they pick? So they they picked for you know best deals with most range, Hyundai Kona Electric, twenty two twenty thousand two hundred dollar average used price, three hundred miles of real world range.

Hyundai

Ionic 6, 244 with 340 miles of real world range. Ionic 5, 26,000 with 350 miles of of range. Chevy Bolt, 280 miles of range for 21,300 average price. And the Nero Kia Nero EV, 23,300, with 300 miles of range. So there's there's some good options out there.

Nicole Wakelin (35:18)
Did one of those is it the Kona or the Nero? Did one of those E those just get discontinued? Am I remembering right? For some reason I thought one of them was the Kona, so that's

Sam Abuelsamid (35:23)
The Kona. It was yeah, they

they discontinued the Kona E V. because they they

Nicole Wakelin (35:29)
Vicona EV.

Sam Abuelsamid (35:30)
cut the price of the Ionic fives down so the starting the Ionic

five starts at thirty five thousand now. So it was getting a little too close to where the Kona was 'cause the Kona was like thirty two and so they just dropped the Kona.

Nicole Wakelin (35:42)
Yeah.

Kona E V. I knew one of them, I couldn't remember. I couldn't re the Hyundai cone or the Kia Nero. It's like, wait a minute, it's one of those little E Vs. Okay. So

Sam Abuelsamid (35:52)
so let's talk about what Ford was doing at at Michigan Speedway last Wednesday.

Nicole Wakelin (35:56)
Yes,

that I missed out on. Tell me, do tell

Sam Abuelsamid (35:59)
Yeah, well, you know,

you didn't you didn't miss that much. so yeah,

Nicole Wakelin (36:03)
I didn't miss much?

Sam Abuelsamid (36:05)
it was it was the Ford Custom Garage. So, you know, it was it was an event put on by their customer service and parts division. And so they had a bunch of performance vehicles, performance models. So it's all vehicles that, you know, all equipped with various parts and packages that you can buy from

from forward per for Ford Racing now. Used to be it was Ford Performance. It's back to Ford Racing again. So all

Nicole Wakelin (36:34)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (36:35)
kinds of Ford racing parts. So they had some Mustangs. they had Mustang F P eight hundred S that have a three yeah they were they were based on Mustang GTs, so V eights, five liter V eights, with a three liter Whipple supercharger on there that takes it from just shy of five hundred horsepower to eight hundred horsepower.

Nicole Wakelin (36:57)
So it's not not not nothing big. Just a modest little car. Meh my gosh.

Sam Abuelsamid (36:59)
No. Yeah, just a little modest modest little bump there.

you know, and they had them they you know, they so they had the full FP eight hundred package, which gets you the supercharger, some suspension upgrades,

Nicole Wakelin (37:11)
Hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (37:12)
a few other things, you know, to to get it you know, get everything to match the the power of that engine. And so

Nicole Wakelin (37:18)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (37:19)
we got to do do a few laps on the road course at MIS.

Nicole Wakelin (37:24)
And how fun was that?

Sam Abuelsamid (37:26)
eight hundred horsepower is a lot.

It's a lot of horsepower. It's I I

Nicole Wakelin (37:32)
Did did everyone survive the experience? Did all the vehicles and journalists survive as far as you know?

Sam Abuelsamid (37:37)
at least in the morning session where when I was there, I did not see anybody spin. I did not see anybody crash, there was no dented metal. yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (37:46)
Well done, us. Okay,

okay. That's not always the case when you give a bunch of journalists a really powerful car and a track.

Sam Abuelsamid (37:52)
Well yeah, I mean th they did

have, you know, a professional ride along in the passenger seat, you know, with with

Nicole Wakelin (37:58)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (37:59)
us, you know, and all the time. So they kind of, you know, kept things under control.

Nicole Wakelin (38:04)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:05)
but yeah, it you know, it it's it's nice. You know, for the stuff that we're that was on there, you know, it was it's about twenty thousand dollars worth of parts. Yeah. so

Nicole Wakelin (38:19)
That's a big increase.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:20)
yeah, well

But, you know, if you know, t you take a a forty five thousand

Nicole Wakelin (38:22)
I mean you're getting a lot for it. It's not like you're not getting a decent amount of stuff for the money.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:27)
dollar Mustang GT, you know, just a a base Mustang GT starting about forty five grand, add twenty thousandish to that, you're in mid sixties, you've got eight hundred horsepower, which is, you know, the same as you get

Nicole Wakelin (38:40)
Absurd.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:40)
in a four hundred thousand dollar Mustang GTD.

Nicole Wakelin (38:44)
Yeah, that's a good point.

Sam Abuelsamid (38:46)
you know, it doesn't have all the suspension goodies that are on the Mustang G T D, so it's not it's not gonna be quite as fast around the track, but you know, for most people it's gonna be plenty. you know.

Nicole Wakelin (38:56)
the thing

like some of these these cars that we get to drive Sam and that people look at and they think my gosh I want this super tricked out thing that's this if I had you know a hundred fifty thousand dollars yeah but you can sometimes get really close

Sam Abuelsamid (39:10)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole Wakelin (39:10)
and and for significantly less and unless you really are someone who's gonna track drive every single weekend you're not gonna enjoy that as much as you think you are like it's just a lot on a road. It's a

What are you gonna do with on the highway? You can't actually take advantage of that. What are you gonna do with that on the way to the grocery store? You can't take advantage of that. It's sort of almost wasted unless you track drive those things all the time.

Sam Abuelsamid (39:37)
Right. And that's that's what I said to the guys at Ford. I said, Yeah, this is great, but you know, unless I'm going on track days all the time, you know, it it's it's it is a waste. You know, I drove out there in my Miata, you know, which is not nearly as fast as these cars. But,

Nicole Wakelin (39:52)
Outpower them all.

Sam Abuelsamid (39:54)
you know, I think I would you know, on most days I would probably have a lot more fun with the Miata than in one of these eight hundred horsepower Mustangs.

Nicole Wakelin (40:03)
I would say the same thing. If you gave me a choice, you gotta have a daily driver, that Mustang that's eight hundred horsepower, or your nineteen ninety Miata with a questionable one hundred and sixteen horsepower, I would take your Miata because the Miata's gonna be fun. You're gonna enjoy it. You can kind of drive it wherever you wanna drive it.

Sam Abuelsamid (40:20)
You can enjoy it at speeds that aren't gonna get

thrown get you thrown in jail.

Nicole Wakelin (40:24)
Right. And you know, and truly that is like if even if you're not trying to be if you're not being irresponsible, if you're trying to stay within the speed limit, it sounds so silly, but you do when you drive those powerful cars, it is so easy, so easy to suddenly look down at the speedometer and think, Whoa, I didn't know I was going that fast, because they're just effortless, which is amazing. But also, like you said, it's gonna get you a speeding ticket or get you thrown in jail if you're not paying attention. and it's it so they're wonderful.

Sam Abuelsamid (40:51)
Or hurt you or other

people.

Nicole Wakelin (40:53)
That's the thing. So they're wonderful. They are so much fun. But I feel like they're toys. Like they

Sam Abuelsamid (40:57)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole Wakelin (40:58)
they're not great as daily drivers. And if you can have that for your track driving and have your Miata or whatever else it is you love for everyday driving, that's the perfect world. So maybe that's the way to do it. But I can't imagine some of these really super high horsepower cars as everyday drivers. As I say that I want the a Hellcat SUV when I have grandchildren. But still

I cannot imagine these high horsepower

Sam Abuelsamid (41:21)
Ha ha.

Nicole Wakelin (41:23)
cars. You know, there's a there's a certain impracticality to them that you have to be willing to live with and knowing that you're not gonna get the best out of them all the time. my god, Robbie is

Sam Abuelsamid (41:34)
look who's here.

Nicole Wakelin (41:35)
here!

Roberto Baldwin (41:35)
It's the Brooklyn Bridge. Mate, hold on, hold on, hold on. There you go. Look at that.

Nicole Wakelin (41:37)
Is that what's behind you? Wait. I see it. I see it. Wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (41:40)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (41:43)
Okay. I made it. That was all.

Nicole Wakelin (41:46)
What are you in New York for?

Can you tell us what you're in New York for?

Roberto Baldwin (41:50)
yeah, sure. I'm here for Audi. I can I

Nicole Wakelin (41:52)
Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (41:53)
I don't think I'm allowed to say what for. Or maybe I I don't know. I'm in I'm in New York with Audi. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (41:57)
Well then don't say it. You're in New York with Addie, we'll leave it at that. Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (41:59)
Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (42:01)
Yeah. How's everybody doing?

Nicole Wakelin (42:04)
Good, how are you?

Sam Abuelsamid (42:04)
good.

Nicole Wakelin (42:04)
I'm glad you f is your phone working yet? Is T Mobile still down?

Roberto Baldwin (42:07)
Yeah, I

apparently T Mobile was down. I didn't know that. I was like in the car on the way from the airport here and I'm like, I'm not getting any network. And so then

Nicole Wakelin (42:15)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (42:16)
I remembered that I have my work phone, which I never the only reason I use my work phone is for security stuff. That's it. Like none of my phone calls go to it. It's just a phone I have. And I was able to tether to it and I did that for a little bit and then finally it looks like it's working now. I guess T Mobile's back.

Nicole Wakelin (42:32)
Yay.

Roberto Baldwin (42:34)
Society has not collapsed while I was while I was in the air. Everything's coming

Nicole Wakelin (42:34)
They figure themselves out. Society has not collapsed.

Sam Abuelsamid (42:39)
Well we were

Roberto Baldwin (42:40)
up mill house.

Sam Abuelsamid (42:41)
we we were just talking about the Ford Custom Garage event I went to at Michigan Speedway last week where they had a bunch of stuff a bunch of a bunch of Ford vehicles with Ford racing parts on them. And we were just finishing up with the the eight hundred horsepower Mustang, supercharged Mustang F P eight hundred S. which is just it's bonkers.

Roberto Baldwin (43:07)
I mean

Nicole Wakelin (43:07)
Were you there, Roberto?

Roberto Baldwin (43:09)
I was not, but at the same time, I mean A that's if you're if you're gonna race a car, like you're going to a track or I be sure. Yeah, but also

Nicole Wakelin (43:18)
You're just saying that yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (43:20)
like I mean there's a lot of EVs that have that much power. So people already buying

Sam Abuelsamid (43:27)
Well, t this morning I

Nicole Wakelin (43:27)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (43:28)
these high powered vehicles. so

Sam Abuelsamid (43:31)
Yeah. Th this mor this morning

I had a Rivian R one T d quad delivered that's

Roberto Baldwin (43:37)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (43:37)
wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (43:38)
a thousand and twenty five horsepower, which is just stupid. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (43:41)
Silly. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (43:41)
Why? Why? Why you

don't need that

Nicole Wakelin (43:44)
No.

Roberto Baldwin (43:44)
what an Irivian? Like what are you doing? Hey guys. I'm gonna go do some

Sam Abuelsamid (43:46)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (43:48)
In a rivian no less.

Roberto Baldwin (43:51)
paddle borne. Bua Hey everybody, I'm gonna take my bike up to the mountains and go for a wike. Bua

Nicole Wakelin (43:54)
But the put the corgies in that.

Roberto Baldwin (44:00)
Gonna do some

surfing later. BOOM! Like everything in the back of your truck slamming into the tailgate. Everything's getting all smashed up.

Sam Abuelsamid (44:08)
Well, all that stuff should be

in the gear tunnel anyway.

Nicole Wakelin (44:11)
gosh.

Roberto Baldwin (44:11)
Well

you can't stick a surfboard in a gear tunnel. It's too small.

Sam Abuelsamid (44:13)
That's true.

But you can stick an inflatable

Nicole Wakelin (44:15)
Yeah, that would have to go.

Sam Abuelsamid (44:16)
paddle board in a gear tunnel.

Roberto Baldwin (44:17)
That's true.

Nicole Wakelin (44:18)
there you go.

Roberto Baldwin (44:19)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (44:19)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (44:21)
I want to see you taking the corgis for a drive and a thousand horsepower. Poor doggos.

Sam Abuelsamid (44:30)
no.

Roberto Baldwin (44:26)
Like hold on to a

Sam Abuelsamid (44:30)
No, not gonna do that. but then af the next rotation after the Mustang, they took us over and we got to drive some F one fifties with a soup with a a Whipple supercharger on there. They only had a mere seven hundred horsepower, so

Nicole Wakelin (44:46)
Ugh

Why even bother?

Roberto Baldwin (44:48)
Like w why

that now that makes even less sense to me. Like a powerful

Nicole Wakelin (44:52)
Ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (44:52)
F one hundred fifty is just that's just a silly thing.

Nicole Wakelin (44:57)
How much power does

a raptor have? Like a straight up just F one hundred fifty Raptor?

Sam Abuelsamid (45:00)
The standard Raptor

is I think like four hundred and fifty, four hundred and sixty horsepower with

Nicole Wakelin (45:05)
God.

Sam Abuelsamid (45:05)
the the the Eco Boost V six. And then th

Roberto Baldwin (45:06)
What's What's the lightning have?

Sam Abuelsamid (45:09)
well the the the lightning was six

Nicole Wakelin (45:13)
See.

Sam Abuelsamid (45:13)
hundred, I think, close to six hundred. But there

Roberto Baldwin (45:16)
I I met a music so

so I had the the r yeah. Anyway I I had I was doing sound for a thing and I met a musician who had a F one fifty Lightning and th he also has horses and I asked him, he's like, I love this thing. It's the best. He's like it's perfect

Sam Abuelsamid (45:29)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (45:30)
for tra hauling horses, it's horse for like all

Nicole Wakelin (45:32)
Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (45:33)
of his band stuff. It was he had this really cool thing that slid out. So like you put your st it slides out and you put it's like you open the oven in the grill in the you know

Sam Abuelsamid (45:41)
Like a slide out tray in the bed.

Roberto Baldwin (45:43)
Yeah, like

Nicole Wakelin (45:43)
And the grill slides out,

yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (45:44)
In

the grill slides? It's the same thing. It's just a slide out tray. I like, so that was a cool thing I saw. But

Nicole Wakelin (45:48)
That's kinda cool. Okay, okay, that's cool.

Sam Abuelsamid (45:48)
Nice.

Roberto Baldwin (45:52)
Yeah. Well

Sam Abuelsamid (45:53)
yeah, they

you know, seven hundred well, there's also the Raptor R, which has seven hundred and twenty horsepower because that's a supercharged five point two liter. That's it's basically the engine from the old GT five hundred, must shall be GT five hundred. Yeah. Again, why?

Roberto Baldwin (46:10)
For

I don't think anyone's using it for

Nicole Wakelin (46:13)
Why? Why?

Roberto Baldwin (46:14)
that. I mean you only you know only people who are using it to do the thing that it's supposed to do or j automotive journalists who like drive out to the Mojave Desert and are like, All right, let's find a place, let's get the camera

Nicole Wakelin (46:22)
Yeehaw. Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (46:25)
thing, let's set up our cameras, all right,

Sam Abuelsamid (46:26)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (46:27)
make sure there's no one around. There's like all this like work that goes into like now we got that shot of this jumping. It's yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (46:33)
We yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (46:35)
That's that's who's using the car. It's it's it's it's us. It's us and we're

Nicole Wakelin (46:37)
That's it. That's the only time.

Roberto Baldwin (46:39)
all like, Hey, where'd you go to get that shot?

Nicole Wakelin (46:43)
That's the only question that happens from the whole thing. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (46:46)
And then after the F one fifties, they took us over to the third station, which was the the Maverick. they showed these at I think at SEMA last November. was it it's the S S V three hundred T Maverick. So basically, you know, you can the Maverick with the two liter EcoBoost, they they take that and they put the larger turbocharger and some other bits from the two point three liter

eco boost that's in the Mustang onto the Maverick. And then they had us run an auto cross course on there. And the problem with doing that, and it also had some suspension upgrades. So the full package with the turbo and other bits and the suspension was about

Roberto Baldwin (47:28)
Yeah, I would hope so.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:32)
five grand. the the Mustang, by the way Robbie, you missed it. The Mustang package

Nicole Wakelin (47:37)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:37)
was twenty grand on top of a Mustang GT. but if you're gonna do stuff like this,

Nicole Wakelin (47:43)
Sum money.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:44)
the you know

you can order it directly from your dealer and have it installed and then you can roll it all into your your your insane monthly payment

Nicole Wakelin (47:53)
Your payment.

Sam Abuelsamid (47:54)
loan and and you get a three year warranty

Roberto Baldwin (47:55)
so if you have like a f

Sam Abuelsamid (47:57)
on it.

Roberto Baldwin (47:58)
so I mean that's cool. The three year warranty's cool. But it's so

Sam Abuelsamid (48:01)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (48:01)
if I have, you know, a sixty thousand dollar like loan on my F one fifty and I decide I want to add like, you know, twenty thousand dollars to it or ten thousand dollars to it. So now they'll just like you know, I I'm one year into my loan and they're like, they your loan's just bigger now instead of paying a bunch of different people. You're paying one person a lot of money. When the interest rates they're not great

Nicole Wakelin (48:22)
A lot.

Roberto Baldwin (48:23)
right now

What

Nicole Wakelin (48:25)
They are not they're

Sam Abuelsamid (48:25)
But

Nicole Wakelin (48:26)
not fabulous.

Sam Abuelsamid (48:26)
but we

we we we did an autocross with the Mavericks with the big turbo on there. And yes, it's definitely faster, but the problem is that big turbo, a lot of turbo lag. So when you got a launch,

Nicole Wakelin (48:40)
Really?

Sam Abuelsamid (48:41)
it just kind of sits there for a bit until it builds up some boost. So you y you know, to to really get

Nicole Wakelin (48:44)
Ha ha ha

Sam Abuelsamid (48:48)
the most out of it you gotta you gotta brake torque it, you know, left do a little left foot braking, spin it up.

spin up the turbo, you know, and then let the let the brake go and then then it goes. But it's I I would

Nicole Wakelin (49:00)
Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid (49:00)
take I would take the suspension upgrades, the suspension and brake upgrades and just forget about the turbo. 'Cause you get two you you

Roberto Baldwin (49:06)
Well just stick the turbo

Nicole Wakelin (49:06)
Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (49:07)
on with the hybrid and then let the hybrid handle the the the you know, tweak the the system for the hybrid so it handles the zero you know, that that first initial push and then the turbo catches

Nicole Wakelin (49:18)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (49:18)
up. But nah what do I know? But that that

Sam Abuelsamid (49:19)
Yeah. Well they they did

Roberto Baldwin (49:22)
involves a lot more work. That's not just a thing you just throw in your car later on.

Sam Abuelsamid (49:26)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (49:26)
Right.

Sam Abuelsamid (49:27)
So, and then the the final thing we went to, was they took us around, you know, to an area that they had set up for content creation, but before they let people do that, they took us around behind some trees and they had a Bronco there. They had they they were hiding a Bronco

Nicole Wakelin (49:42)
We s geez, what's happening?

Roberto Baldwin (49:43)
They think using behind some trees.

How am I?

Sam Abuelsamid (49:47)
back there. apparently, you know, Fort Ford Racing is gonna be doing

these annual drops of special edition Broncos, kinda like Jeep is doing right now every month with the Wrangler.

Nicole Wakelin (49:59)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (49:59)
Ford's only gonna do it once a year. so

Roberto Baldwin (49:59)
Yeah, this is Well

Lamborghini did one for Halo today. I guess got a random thing about a Halo inspired Lamborghini orders. I'm like

Sam Abuelsamid (50:08)
Yeah. Yeah, I saw that.

Roberto Baldwin (50:11)
Alright. I'm unless it's Halo three, who cares?

Nicole Wakelin (50:14)
Ha

ha ha

Sam Abuelsamid (50:16)
the the Bronco that they showed us that you know as we're recording it went live this morning, it was embargoed till this morning, is the the Bronco Desert Sun. which is inspired by the the color of the skies and the desert in Utah in in Moab.

Nicole Wakelin (50:34)
It's pink.

Sam Abuelsamid (50:35)
Or desert sorry, Desert Rising, not Desert Sun, Desert Rising. and it's got lots of pink on it. and it looks good.

Nicole Wakelin (50:42)
I'm sorry, excuse

Roberto Baldwin (50:42)
Aww.

Nicole Wakelin (50:43)
me. It's magenta. I kinda like it.

Sam Abuelsamid (50:45)
Well,

there's actually a bunch of different shades. Pink and magenta and

Roberto Baldwin (50:48)
It's shades of agenda.

It's a sunset.

Nicole Wakelin (50:49)
I love the seats.

The magenta the seats are definitely that magenta,

Sam Abuelsamid (50:53)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (50:54)
it looks like it which is like the deeper of the

Sam Abuelsamid (50:56)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole Wakelin (50:57)
pink side. It's kinda cool. I you know what? I sorta like it. It's there's a link in the show notes. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (50:57)
Nope. Nope. I'm still looking for an all that So much Ford news. there it is.

Sam Abuelsamid (50:59)
Yeah.

No. The the the desert rising

Roberto Baldwin (51:08)
yeah, that's very yeah, that's very pink. It's they

Sam Abuelsamid (51:10)
Yeah. The the

Nicole Wakelin (51:10)
It's very pink.

Roberto Baldwin (51:12)
just should have just called it Barbie car and sold like probably double what they're gonna sell at now, for

now.

Nicole Wakelin (51:17)
Right?

Sam Abuelsamid (51:17)
There

there it is. There's the there's there's the Barbie Bronco, the Desert Rising Bronco. this

Nicole Wakelin (51:17)
Seriously. you got it up on the screen now. The Barbie Bronco.

Roberto Baldwin (51:21)
Yeah. Literally you just

Sam Abuelsamid (51:24)
this whole package is thirteen thousand six hundred and ninety five dollars.

Nicole Wakelin (51:30)
It's just appearance too, that's it?

Sam Abuelsamid (51:32)
Well,

it it you know, it includes the wheels and you know, the the special interior and and the the graphics and everything. But yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (51:40)
Hmm.

That's a lot. It's really cool though. I

Sam Abuelsamid (51:42)
They're method wheels.

Nicole Wakelin (51:44)
mean it's very cool.

Sam Abuelsamid (51:47)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (51:47)
But that that's kind of a lot though.

Roberto Baldwin (51:50)
I'm a Barbie girl and a

Sam Abuelsamid (51:50)
It is.

Roberto Baldwin (51:52)
Barbie man.

Nicole Wakelin (51:52)
In a Barbie

world. I don't know the rest of the words.

Sam Abuelsamid (51:54)
So so that was that was the Ford Custom Garage Day.

Nicole Wakelin (51:59)
Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (51:59)
Alright.

Well good job forward. it's

Sam Abuelsamid (52:01)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (52:02)
Good job for me.

Sam Abuelsamid (52:02)
So Robbie,

before we carry on, did you drive anything that you want to talk about?

Roberto Baldwin (52:06)
I drove two things. I will talk about them very briefly. I haven't even done the math on one of Or either of them to be well one of So I had the the the Kia tell your ride h you know what? Give me two seconds. Talk about something else. I gotta look these I need to get these things up. I wanna don't wanna tell p yet.

Nicole Wakelin (52:21)
Can't tell wanna talk about another thing, Sam? Pick another topic.

Which one?

Sam Abuelsamid (52:25)
okay. How about concepts that got worse on the way to production? Jalopnik

Nicole Wakelin (52:29)
Concept cars, let's

Sam Abuelsamid (52:31)
Jalopnik had had one of their listicles that readers submitted a bunch of stuff, you know. so some cool concept cars that by the time they made it to production did not look quite so cool. so the first one up was the Chevy Volt, the original Volt concept.

Nicole Wakelin (52:51)
That's

the concept of the volt? my gosh. That

Sam Abuelsamid (52:53)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (52:55)
looks nothing like the car that became the volt. Wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (53:01)
It's yeah, it's a little different. then they also had the Pontiac Transport. Yeah, this one goes way back. This one was from nineteen eighty six. I remember when the Tran I'm old I remember when the transport concept came out. The the Yeah, it you rem do you do you remember

Nicole Wakelin (53:12)
I don't remember that one, so I can't help with that one. Did that look till nineteen eighty six Chicago Auto Show? Wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (53:19)
the pr the production version of the transport? The the first Pontiac minivan? The Dustbuster van? It had a really long nose.

Nicole Wakelin (53:22)
I don't even remember the production. The d did it look I

know which one you're talking about. That was it? Okay. The

Sam Abuelsamid (53:31)
Yeah. They

the the concept looked much better. Did not look the same.

Nicole Wakelin (53:36)
God.

Sam Abuelsamid (53:37)
the Jeep Gladiator. So the there was a gladiator concept based on the the JK Wrangler back before the production gladiator arrived, but this was based on a a two door slightly extended cab Wrangler rather than the four door. it was

Nicole Wakelin (53:54)
When did this concept come out? I don't even I don't even remember this concept.

Sam Abuelsamid (53:59)
it was

Probably about twenty fifteen.

Nicole Wakelin (54:03)
I totally missed it. This looks fabulous.

Sam Abuelsamid (54:06)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (54:07)
I'm mad. Now I'm mad. I didn't know this is what it was supposed to look like in concept. Look at the little door. Like the teeny little back door in the side, the side spare. that

Sam Abuelsamid (54:13)
Yeah. It's it's kinda like the Rivian gear tunnel.

Nicole Wakelin (54:20)
was cool. Jeep, come on. That was really cool.

Sam Abuelsamid (54:24)
And then there was the Ford Interceptor concept. So back in

Nicole Wakelin (54:27)
my goodness.

Sam Abuelsamid (54:28)
in January 2007 at the same Detroit Auto Show where they unveiled the the Volt, Ford had three concepts, including this one. There was the Lincoln MKR and the Airstream

Nicole Wakelin (54:38)
Wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (54:39)
van. And strangely enough, that summer in July of that year, they had an event at the Dearborn Proving Grounds where we actually got to drive these concepts around the Proving Grounds.

Nicole Wakelin (54:49)
How is that?

Sam Abuelsamid (54:52)
it it was not as exciting as you might expect it to be. Because these

Nicole Wakelin (54:55)
Ha ha ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (54:57)
were concepts, so they weren't real well sorted out. And it was like a ninety

Nicole Wakelin (55:00)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (55:01)
something degree day with ninety five percent humidity. And the

Nicole Wakelin (55:03)
Bh yeah, not fun.

Sam Abuelsamid (55:05)
the interceptor had a a five liter V eight crate motor in it with a big four barrel carburetor on it. So it wasn't even fuel injected. It was a carbureted

Nicole Wakelin (55:18)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (55:19)
engine and

With the heat and humidity that day, it kept getting vapor locked. So you'd do about three quarters of a lap

Nicole Wakelin (55:26)
jeez.

Sam Abuelsamid (55:27)
and then it would just start to sputter and die. And then they'd have to let it sit for ten minutes and cool off before the next person could get in and go. So not a lot of fun. and then let's see, next on the list was this Subaru Subaru WRX concept. the the caption on here. Every single Subaru WRX concept versus the real car they released in the last twenty years.

not

Nicole Wakelin (55:50)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (55:51)
not quite as much fun.

Nicole Wakelin (55:53)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (55:54)
and then there was the Jeep Renegade, which this one was about two thousand nine, I think. Two thousand eight or two thousand nine. This little yeah, little Jeep Dune buggy.

Nicole Wakelin (56:04)
It looks like a Dune buggy. That was what

the origin it's just registering. That was the concept for the renegade.

Sam Abuelsamid (56:12)
It had the same name. It was not Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (56:14)
my gosh, it looks nothing aw.

And it's kind of fun. But you know what

Sam Abuelsamid (56:19)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (56:20)
this one reminds me though? I'm gonna be honest, though, if anybody's ever been to Disney World and done the Chevy test track experience, you could build your own car and you

Sam Abuelsamid (56:27)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole Wakelin (56:27)
on like on little thing as a part of the line and and then it would tell you how to did for performance, for power and efficiency, and it totally looks like something some kid would have bought built on that test track.

Roberto Baldwin (56:36)
It's the Homer.

Nicole Wakelin (56:40)
That's hilarious.

Sam Abuelsamid (56:39)
There there's there

we go, there's the Renegade. let's see that that was the Subaru, the Interceptor. There there was the Gladiator for anybody that's watching.

Nicole Wakelin (56:46)
Look at that Jeep.

I love the gladiator. my god, I love it so much.

Sam Abuelsamid (56:51)
let's see what else we got

here. the Toyota F T one concept. This this eventually became

Nicole Wakelin (56:56)
Look at that.

Sam Abuelsamid (56:58)
the Supra.

Nicole Wakelin (57:01)
I mean not even close you guys.

Sam Abuelsamid (57:06)
And then the Jaguar XJ two twenty. the the

Nicole Wakelin (57:09)
geez.

Sam Abuelsamid (57:09)
production version did not look nearly as good as the original concept. and of course the Aztec.

Nicole Wakelin (57:14)
The Aztec, which unfortunately looked

like the Aztec, but it unfortunately looked like that.

Sam Abuelsamid (57:19)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (57:21)
The one they should have changed. That did not change enough. How much is different?

Sam Abuelsamid (57:23)
yeah. Well, it it actually did change quite a bit. The proportions when you look at it.

Nicole Wakelin (57:28)
Isn't the back is the back see it still has that weird I don't know what to say about the back. The back does that like Did it?

Sam Abuelsamid (57:34)
Yeah. The the concept actually did look a lot cooler than the production model. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (57:39)
I I still don't think it's that cool.

Sam Abuelsamid (57:42)
I said cooler. I didn't say it looks cool. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (57:44)
Okay, okay, okay, gotcha, cooler.

Roberto Baldwin (57:44)
Cooler. The bar's very low.

Nicole Wakelin (57:47)
It's a low bar. Okay, understood. Well okay, now I'll agree with you, Sam.

Sam Abuelsamid (57:50)
Okay.

All right. All right, Robbie. Your turn.

Roberto Baldwin (57:54)
Okay, so this is what okay, so first let's start with the Kia. I drove the Kia. Tell Uride X Pro XX S X presti Okay, let's try that over. Tell you ride

Sam Abuelsamid (58:07)
Too many X's.

Roberto Baldwin (58:08)
X Pro S X prestige all wheel drive. That is a lot of words.

Nicole Wakelin (58:16)
That's a lot of car name.

Roberto Baldwin (58:18)
It it is

And this is sort of their off-roady vehicle. You know, it's it's it's you know, you're if you're like, hey, I want to get a Land Rover, but I kinda want it not to break down.

Sam Abuelsamid (58:29)
Ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (58:31)
and I don't need a Land Rover. You get the 2027 Tell you Ride X Pro S X Prestige all wheel drive. I really

Nicole Wakelin (58:41)
And it runs.

Roberto Baldwin (58:42)
yeah, I it it it has a two point five Liver turbo engines, got eight speed automatic transmissions, all wheel drive, yes, terrain mode.

Self-leveling rear suspension. Ooh. It's got 247 horsepower, 311 pound feet of torque. More than enough whenever I needed to stomp on it to get on the freeway. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. very comfortable seats. Like more comfortable than the car I had, the other vehicle I had. and the other vehicle I had was substantially more. the

Nicole Wakelin (59:13)
Mm mm.

Roberto Baldwin (59:13)
sticker price. not double, but you know, almost close.

No, I I mean Kia, the telluride, these these you know, the the telluride came and it I kinda changed everything for a lot of people. It changed a lot of things for Kia. I'd like that the d the design of the old telluride better, but that doesn't mean I don't I hate this design. I I still you know it's nice. It's nice to drive, it's comfortable. Like you got three s three rows. I don't know who's gonna sit in the back. That's you know, again

I I don't I'm not gonna play the game of trying to s big guy in the back of a car. Cause

Nicole Wakelin (59:53)
Mm.

Roberto Baldwin (59:53)
like no one wins. No one wins in that. But it it had the captain's seats. yeah, no, I really like this vehicle. the fuel economy according to the EPA is nineteen combined, seventeen city, twenty two highway. I got twenty, so yeah, there you go. I drove around I didn't do a lot of hauling with it and I wasn't able to take it off road. So that's kind of a meh.

So that's a bummer. But I I did ride drive this off road before, so and it works really well. So it's yeah, it's not the yeah, it's not the end of the world I didn't drive it off-road while I was at my house because I'd already done it and it it worked fantastic. Of course, because it has all the extra letters and words, it costs more. So a regular Kia Telluride starts at

Sam Abuelsamid (1:00:37)
Hey, those stick on letters are expensive.

Roberto Baldwin (1:00:39)
Yep, the

Nicole Wakelin (1:00:40)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:00:40)
the regular Kia Telluride starts at 39,000 for the LX, $39,190.

this one starts at Manufactured Sexual Retail Price $56,790. And then they they had this like brown matte paint. So with that Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid (1:00:59)
Yeah, I've seen that.

Roberto Baldwin (1:01:01)
it's almost like an orange. It's like a it's like a it's it's

Nicole Wakelin (1:01:01)
What's this? Brown matte paint?

Roberto Baldwin (1:01:03)
like a orangey brown. it says carpeted floor mats. Mine did not have carpeted floor mats. It had the rubber floor mats, so they must have taken those out.

Nicole Wakelin (1:01:11)
They may have swapped them

out. Sometimes they only they do that at the like I get plastic floor mats that are generic.

Roberto Baldwin (1:01:17)
Yeah, the whole thing

had like the rubber floor mats, which I was like, Good job, Kia. in the front, in the back, that's that's how you should outfit your vehicle. especially if it's an off-roady vehicle. Because you're gonna get out, you're gonna get mud or dirt or I don't know, whatever else you're standing in, if you have c cows or horses. you don't wanna get down on the carpet, you can just get in a little rubber mat, take the mat out, hose it off, toss it back in, you're on with your life.

After everything, it's a sixty thousand dollar car. Sixty thousand dollar Kia. Does it feel like a sixty thousand dollar Kia? Yes. Because it's Kia, everything feels nicer than it does. You know, but you it's it's a twenty thousand dollar, you know, upgrade from just the regular tell you ride. And if you're not doing all the things that this vehicle says that you could do, you could save twenty thousand dollars. You have most of a slate paid for if you just get a regular old key out.

Nicole Wakelin (1:02:12)
Ha ha.

You know, that's something that like such a recurring theme. We were talking about it even with paying for performance cars right as you were coming into the show. You know, it's hard it's so tempting to want to buy stuff that you look at it, you go, the performance like off-road or all the performance on the track. Do you

Roberto Baldwin (1:02:28)
Do this. Gotta do this.

Nicole Wakelin (1:02:29)
actually do that? Are you actually going to do that? If you're going to do that, if that is your true lifestyle, knock yourself out. If it's not your lifestyle, don't waste your money on that. Don't do it.

You're spending a lot for stuff you're never gonna use.

Roberto Baldwin (1:02:44)
Like all terrain tires, like I I went to where did I take the key? I think I took it to Costco 'cause that's a thing I always I do pretty

Nicole Wakelin (1:02:51)
Ha ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:02:53)
h I took it to some other I took it to band practice. I took it to

Nicole Wakelin (1:02:57)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:02:58)
you know, I I was on the freeway and I was on side streets. I think maybe I drove onto a dirt road for like three seconds. Yeah. Yeah. It's got some action. I got some it might have just been gravel on a road.

Nicole Wakelin (1:03:05)
There you go. Not worth it for those three seconds if you were spending your own money.

Roberto Baldwin (1:03:13)
so yeah, so very quickly that was the the Kia Tellurite X Pro S X Prestige all wheel drive. The other vehicle I had, I just ended up getting two vehicles this week was not completely different. twenty twenty six Lucid Gravity.

Nicole Wakelin (1:03:29)
Ooh, what do you think of that?

Roberto Baldwin (1:03:30)
I I mean I liked it at the the that the initial drive. The I I think it's it is a a really nice nicely engineered. I really like the design of it. It's it's really just a really tall wag it's just a big wagon. I like to say I like to joke this is the best Volvo wagon E V out there.

Nicole Wakelin (1:03:53)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:03:54)
my wife said it was a minivan. She's this is just she's like, This thing's she was kinda looking at it, it's like it's like a minivan 'cause you know the load height is really low and it's you know, all these things went into making it so you could like, you know, put tall people in the back and they could sleep. That's to say You go you put a surfboard back there.

Nicole Wakelin (1:04:13)
Well, it does ha it really

does give off minivan vibes, to be honest. It really does.

Roberto Baldwin (1:04:16)
It does.

It does. But and then you drive and you're like, gosh, this is very quick. It is not a minivan.

Nicole Wakelin (1:04:20)
Yeah, not a minivan.

Roberto Baldwin (1:04:23)
this one was outfitted with Dream Drive two Pro. So it's their latest edition of their eight ass system. Hands off. it did really well. especially in some of the the the corners around my house. some of the, you know, GM, Blue Crews, Mercedes. No, I think Mercedes handled it. But there's there's there's some pretty tight corners,

Just because of the nature of driving around the Bay Area apparently. on the freeway. And this this did a really good job, like handling it. Where it did get a l a little wonky is like it was it was able to d we were in a construction zone, so the lines were gone, but it had those little pieces of tape, you know, those and things in the road. So

Nicole Wakelin (1:05:03)
yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:05:04)
it was it was able to c like to continue to center the lane, do the all the hands free, whatever, for quite a long time. And then it got real weird, like the the

the the way the tape was and you just like a faint line and you're you know they're doing construction or just kind of moving the road around while they're working on stuff. And so at that point

Sam Abuelsamid (1:05:21)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (1:05:22)
When they're doing this like yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:05:24)
it was like, I so what it kept doing was it kept trying to engage and then it would disengage and then it would engage and then

Nicole Wakelin (1:05:31)
Mm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:05:31)
disengage and then it would engage and then disengage and then it would and like all right now this is just annoying. fortunately

Nicole Wakelin (1:05:37)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:05:37)
you can go into the the the menu and you can turn you can you could set it from Dream Drive and just set it to adaptive cruise control.

Thank God. But I have to go into a menu because a lot of this vehicle is in the menu. Yes, they have buttons. They have the little four buttons on the steering wheel on each side, the little like almost joysticks with the two action buttons below them. and you know, they do have a little you know, clickers up and down for for climate controls, and they have a volume roller. So they have like all the sort of the basics covered, but there's so many like little things you can turn on and off in this vehicle that's in the screen. And so you're like, okay, let me find

this thing it isn't and it's not

Nicole Wakelin (1:06:16)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:06:16)
too hard but it's also in the screen so I'm doing that instead of like you know looking where I'm going. that's yeah

Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:25)
Yeah, that's a problem.

Roberto Baldwin (1:06:27)
that's a problem. There's a problem right there. so but but at the end of the day it's still you know it's all wheel drive it's a dual motor, five hundred and sixty horsepower what it's seven it's got a seven hundred volt architecture

Nineteen point two kilowatts I'm sorry. Yeah, nineteen point two kilowatts AC charging. Thumbs up on that. That's some good charging. If you happen to have that's a n that amount of power. Well you're gonna need a hundred amps. 'Cause you gotta do twenty percent more.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:53)
If you've got an eighty if you got an eighty amp circuit in your home or a hundred hundred amp circuit. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (1:06:57)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:07:01)
Yeah, you need a hundred amp circuit

Roberto Baldwin (1:07:02)
There you go

Sam Abuelsamid (1:07:02)
dedicated to your charger.

Roberto Baldwin (1:07:05)
So it's a yeah, it's it is a quick, solid vehicle. I will say that spending a lot of time in the vehicle, I don't like the seats weren't nearly as comfortable as the telluride. And again, seats are really seats come

Nicole Wakelin (1:07:17)
Hmm. Really?

Roberto Baldwin (1:07:19)
yeah, seats come down to like, you know, personal preference. The telluride they

Nicole Wakelin (1:07:22)
Right.

Roberto Baldwin (1:07:23)
just felt comfier. They were squishier and the the the lucids were a bit more firm. again, that is a

You know, individual it's it's n it's kinda nice having two cars, but not so much because now I gotta do I gotta drive both these cars. I've been driving this car too much. Let me go drive the other one. Hold on, let me go drive the car. I gotta do a range run. and I try to do a range run in this one and I got like ten minutes out and then there was like car accidents. I'm like, Well, that's a waste of my time. I know, you're like, Well, I guess I'm going home.

Nicole Wakelin (1:07:50)
there you go. Boom. Done.

Roberto Baldwin (1:07:55)
Overall I think, you know again, I think we talked about the packaging, Lucid's packaging is like

you know, bar done. They have the little they have the frunk, you can sit in it. They set it up so you can sit down. You put look there's cup holders. there's so much space in this vehicle. So Sunday I had to do sound for some bands playing a show and I was bringing the PA. So I have this giant like mixing PA thing. It has like a mixer, it has amplifiers inside. So I've got a big rolling block. And then I also have two speakers for music. And then I

two monitors, actu two regular size monitors, and they have this big giant powered monitor. So I have to put all that and I have a box. You know, you know when you go to like like Costco or Walmart, you know, those big like the big plastic bins, like that

Sam Abuelsamid (1:08:46)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:08:47)
full of cables and and and whatnot. And so plus mic stands and some other th and and and a hand cart and a chair so I could sit down.

Shoved all that in the back of the gravity. I didn't have to Tetris anything. I didn't have to do anything. I was like, I was like plop plop plop. Like every time I do anything else in any other vehicle, I'm like, okay, I have this stuff. Like this goes on here and then I can set this on here and then I can like, you know, I let me turn these because the monitors have like a r 45 degree angle. So you kinda like Tetris them together, you know, like two triangles coming together.

Nicole Wakelin (1:09:26)
Tetris them together.

Roberto Baldwin (1:09:28)
And so you're doing all this stuff, and then you gotta stick things on top of that stuff, and you wanna make sure that's not set up in a way where if you stop it like bings you the back of the head. Nope, didn't have to do any of that stuff. I could have put my guitar and my ant back there. I could have put so much room for for so much room yeah,

Nicole Wakelin (1:09:45)
All the space.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:09:46)
Yeah. Well we

Roberto Baldwin (1:09:47)
so much room for activities. I will say so this vehicle it has a rating of 337 miles and

Previously, whenever I would test a lucid, because they're using the same testing that that that Tesla uses, is that you know the mileage number was always lower than the actual I'm sorry, the mileage number the the EPA range is always higher than the actual range. Like one of them, like I had like a 500 mile and it did 450. I'm like, who cares if it's fifty dot miles off? You're doing four hundred and something miles. I was like

Nicole Wakelin (1:10:21)
Mm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:10:23)
this one.

it beat the mile, so at three hundred and thirty seven, I got three hundred and forty two on my range run. So good job.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:28)
that's good. So is this with the

the the big wheels, the twenty two inch wheels?

Roberto Baldwin (1:10:33)
Yeah, let me see. It's 20 inch. No, we had the twenty inch wheels. Twenty on the front, twenty-one on the back. So

Sam Abuelsamid (1:10:41)
okay. Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (1:10:43)
it wasn't the giant giant wheels. So but no, it's it's it it is a nice like road tripping vehicle. I know remember when we drove it, it was you had it for a while. I drove this car more than the Kia just because I have to do a couple articles on this vehicle. But yeah, the Dream Drive Pro

You know, it's up there with other offerings. I d it does have the same thing that like GM has where you have to kinda like you can feel the torque, like kinda wrestle it away from that. whereas some other I know I can't say talk about that. Never mind.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:11:20)
Mm-hmm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:11:21)
I wasn't gonna say a thing. Almost got busted. yeah. I and I think we talked about how like why like Blue Crews

the scored above GM and I believe in consumer reports was it who did the but it was it was the sort of

Sam Abuelsamid (1:11:34)
Yeah. Yeah, it was consumer reports.

Roberto Baldwin (1:11:36)
takeover where it's it's it's a bit more seamless. You don't there's not as much torque to take over, which I actually enjoy. I like the idea of having less torque. I shouldn't have to fight with the car because what happens when you fight is now you're you're you're you know, you you inadvertently like swerving in the road like very quickly. That's not great.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:11:52)
Yeah. You end up you

Nicole Wakelin (1:11:53)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:11:53)
end up overres overreacting to it.

Roberto Baldwin (1:11:56)
Exactly.

Nicole Wakelin (1:11:56)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:11:57)
and so yeah, it's is it's it's a comfortable car, but I but not as comfortable as that tell you ride. And this car starts at okay, so the base for this one is eighty thousand. I got the Dream Drive, which was you know sixty seven hundred, a surreal sound pro, which was three thousand, comfort and convenience package, they had a bunch of stuff, heated s wheel, acoustic thermal insulate.

rear privacy glass, whatever. 2500, a dynamic handling package. But it handled really well on the back roads, like really, really well. It's that I mean, but that's you know, lucid the chassis, the engineering, the packaging, that's their like that's their holy trinity. It's the software where things get a little weird. For so I didn't have any weird software issues or glitches, but there is a thing where if you're projecting car play onto the screen,

T most typically when you look at the screen, along the left hand corner is like the home button and a couple other buttons. Like the you know, the main buttons that get you, you know, to whatever your main categories in the screen. when you have car play, that those disappear and to get out of car play, you have to hit the car play button above, you know, the little logo above that. So I was trying to like like how do I go back to the home screen? And I was like, What if I just hit the car play button? Like, that's what do you gotta do? So

Nicole Wakelin (1:13:22)
Ha ha

ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:13:23)
That's a little odd.

Roberto Baldwin (1:13:23)
So if you have a

lucid yeah, if you have a lucid, that's what you gotta do. It's yeah, it's it's it's it's odd. They could move it over to the left and have those three yeah, they it's it's something they should probably fix. that said, at the end of the day, you know, the vehicle one hundred four thousand seven hundred dollars.

Woo! Again, that's

Nicole Wakelin (1:13:47)
Oof.

Roberto Baldwin (1:13:47)
twenty that's twenty thousand, almost twenty-five thousand dollars more than the than just the bass model. And really, are you I do need surreal sound pro? Maybe I don't know. Are you a musician? Do you need

Sam Abuelsamid (1:14:02)
Of course, you want your sound to be surreal while you're driving.

Nicole Wakelin (1:14:03)
Absolutely. I mean who doesn't want surreal sound?

Roberto Baldwin (1:14:08)
Dream Drive 2 Pro? And here's the thing, I still leave my hands on the wheel.

I don't hands-free driving becomes less and less impressive than me because I don't have anywhere to put my hands anyway. It's great. Again, if you're eating, it's helpful. If you're drinking, look you you you're you're you're Will Farrell and Talladega Heights. My what do I do with my hands? And I and I

Nicole Wakelin (1:14:21)
You know, I thought about that with the hands free driving thing. You don't you just have your hands. What do I do with these? Like you just kinda fold your hands like hmph, okay, what do I I don't know where to put them. Yep.

Roberto Baldwin (1:14:34)
don't trust robots to be honest. I've been a reporter that's covered tech.

Nicole Wakelin (1:14:36)
I don't trust robots. There's also

Sam Abuelsamid (1:14:38)
And they should not be trusted.

Nicole Wakelin (1:14:40)
that. Mm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:14:41)
I've been

a reporter who's been covering on technology, both on like consumer technology and now automotive technology for far too long to trust any robots. yeah, overall though, but I I re I I really liked it when I did the first drive. I really like it now. you know, I I know people there's the you know they've had issues with with software. This is I don't know what version of the software they're on now. but I think it's like V three. I think it's version three of the software that the that

is in that vehicle. yeah. You know, it's it's it's a great car. It is it's my f it's it is the the it's an amazing band vehicle. Or if you surf. Or if you have to haul anything. Yeah, if you have to haul dogs, yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:15:23)
Great f great for carrying dogs too. You can put four four dog kennels in the back.

Roberto Baldwin (1:15:28)
You could put four dog candles in the back, which we did with the the Operation Frodo. I mean it's just no, it's a it's a it's a really impressive vehicle. I don't have the top charge rate.

Which is it's probably three fifty, I don't know.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:15:44)
yeah, I I think it's I think it's around three three twenty.

Roberto Baldwin (1:15:48)
Hold on. That's like a

Nicole Wakelin (1:15:50)
I don't want to lie. Lying liar, Robbie.

Roberto Baldwin (1:15:53)
I know, I don't wanna say three fifty and then someone's like, She's he's a liar. Like I had s I did a

Sam Abuelsamid (1:15:57)
It is over three hundred,

I know that.

Roberto Baldwin (1:16:01)
I had someone I did an artic I did a video about the at four hundred kilowatt. Whoa, there you go. Four hundred kilowatt DC fast charging. Charging made simple. Lucid gravity. Yeah, so it's quick. Snack charger. Easy peasy. So four hundred kilowatts. Yeah. It's it's more than than than Samurai said. so we weren't gonna hit hurt any bunch of feelings. about that video I did a video about the ID four, like the

the the launch one, the first, and I said the specs, I did the video and the video was a talk because at the time Volkswagen was saying it's like, this is the new Beetle. Because the Beetle was such a huge deal for them. And I you know, I said it then, I think it now. It it wasn't a new Beetle for them. I think there was but I brought a Beetle out. We had a super beetle and we were driving it around talking about the differences between them and what one what one meant what the other meant. And the video goes up and it would just went on my real YouTube site.

And some somebody jumped on there is like, He didn't even get the specs right. Those aren't the specs of my car and I'm like, sir, I I didn't even bother replying 'cause I was like I don't know what to tell you.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:17:07)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (1:17:08)
Ha ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:17:09)
That's specs I mean

Have you ever looked at different trims? I don't

yeah. Anyway, so I don't like to lie, but also if you come at me and say you got the specs wrong and then I double check and I'm like,

Nicole Wakelin (1:17:24)
If you come at me, don't come at him.

Roberto Baldwin (1:17:27)
don't come at me don't come at me with for silliness.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:17:32)
All right. Anything else on the gravity?

Roberto Baldwin (1:17:35)
if you're rich, it's the best minivan.

Nicole Wakelin (1:17:38)
If you're

rich. Buy it if you're rich, otherwise bye-bye.

Roberto Baldwin (1:17:43)
If

you're rich

I mean eighty thousand dollars. If you got eighty thousand dollars and you're like, you know what? I need a really rad minivan. That's not a minivan that I can put so much stuff in and has a low ride h a low a low load height and it's it'll go for almost five three hundred and fifty miles and when it does charge, if you're lucky enough to find one, it'll do four hundred kilowatts.

There

you go. Lucid gravity. It's it's

Nicole Wakelin (1:18:12)
There we go. Lucid gravity done. In a nutshell.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:14)
All right.

Roberto Baldwin (1:18:16)
in a nutshell.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:16)
So

so you mentioned CarPlay. So there you know, we've talked before about CarPlay Ultra and how basically nobody but Aston Martin's

Roberto Baldwin (1:18:26)
Ultra

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:27)
using it. but

Roberto Baldwin (1:18:30)
Did I tell you that I ended up liking it? I was like, this is dumb. And then I was watching, I'm like, this is kinda nice.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:34)
What CarPlay Ultra?

Roberto Baldwin (1:18:36)
Yes. But it was in an Aston Martin. So like Aston Martin's job isn't making like a good software. Aston Martin's job is to make an Aston Martin. So I'm like, alright, it makes sense.

Nicole Wakelin (1:18:46)
Ha ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:18:47)
But I ended up like because of before I was like this is nonsense. And then I was driving around, I'm like, this is kinda nice actually.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:55)
Well, no no other automaker has used CarPlay Ultra, but Ford announced that they're gonna use Apple Maps in the new Universal Electric Vehicle. So you know, App Apple's got you know, they've got their map kit for automotive SDK and as part you know, Ford like a couple of years ago Ford started introducing a g a Google Android based

infotainment

system and a bunch of vehicles. They've got in the Explorer and the Expedition and and a couple of Lincolns now. but with the UEV, they're going back to doing their own completely in house system. So we'll see how that works out. But part of it

Roberto Baldwin (1:19:38)
I I feel

like Apple Maps is gonna be the best part of it. And and I will

Sam Abuelsamid (1:19:41)
Ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:19:41)
say that I use Apple Maps way more than I used to because I when it launched, once we were going camping and Apple Maps led me to a tiny regional airport. Like at the end of the runway. We're just driving and then like there's a gate. And and we were sitting in the car and my wife and I are like at the same time, Apple Maps and we just backed up. Drove off.

Nicole Wakelin (1:20:02)
I I can remember trying to find places with the original Apple maps and there was some spot that was like in a strip mall. It was one of the first times I had ever used it. And like I drive there's like twenty strip malls in the store. It's like turn here. I'm like

Turn here. There's that which where? Which to and it was like n I'm like, none of these malls have the thing. And I'm just like cruising through parking lots. It's like three strip malls down from where I want to be. It was like stupid Apple Naps. I was like late for my appointment. I couldn't find it. It was it was initially I hated it. I hated it. It made me angry.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:20:33)
Well

Roberto Baldwin (1:20:33)
No

Sam Abuelsamid (1:20:34)
it it it has definitely gotten better. and so it you know it

Roberto Baldwin (1:20:34)
I yeah, it's defin it's way, way better. And preferred

if you're walking around Japan, use Apple Maps, don't use Google Maps. You're gonna get lost with Google Maps. Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (1:20:44)
yeah? good to know.

Roberto Baldwin (1:20:45)
I

Sam Abuelsamid (1:20:48)
well the Apple Maps Apple map kit for automotive is gonna be in the UEV platform. It's gonna be powering the base navigation system plus the EV charge routing. and they're also using it to it's gonna be powering the next generation Blue Cruise stuff that Latitude AI is working on. So that's gonna start off with hands-free capability and then eventually

the plan is to make it hands off and eyes off capable. yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:22)
Level three. Yeah, everyone's

you know. The van the plan eventually

Nicole Wakelin (1:21:25)
Mm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:26)
is for everyone.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:21:27)
Yeah.

But it's it's all gonna it's all gonna be based on Apple Maps. 'cause right now Ford

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:31)
Wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:21:32)
uses here maps for Blue Cruise and they use TomTom

for their navigation stuff, except on the newer models that have Android where they're using Google Maps. But they're ditching all of that and going with just Apple maps across the board on the U V.

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:46)
That's

a bummer for here and Tom Tom, 'cause they were sort of like the

Sam Abuelsamid (1:21:49)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:49)
map people forever and then womp womp.

Nicole Wakelin (1:21:51)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:21:52)
Yeah.

So they'll be Fort'll be the first one using Apple Map kit.

Roberto Baldwin (1:21:58)
Well, we'll see how that works out.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:22:00)
Yeah. Well be curious to see if it can actually find chargers.

Roberto Baldwin (1:22:05)
I I can tell you that that you know, my hat's off the Ford. Apple can be a huge pain in the ass to work with. That's I was an Apple

Sam Abuelsamid (1:22:13)
yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:22:13)
reporter for years. Like everyone I've

Nicole Wakelin (1:22:15)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:22:15)
dealt with everyone I talked to, a lot of them sort of like, well, on background are like, Yeah, this it wasn't a fun experience.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:22:23)
Well, and I think

that's a that's a big part of why almost nobody is using CarPlay Ultra because Apple's just been a pain to work with to try and implement it. Yep. It's it's yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:22:32)
As Apple's apple. They're like, We're Apple, what are you gonna do? Huh? Huh? Huh?

Nicole Wakelin (1:22:33)
It's too difficult. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:22:39)
So Ford also announced another thing they they they're partnering with a company called Generlink. and Generlink makes these

adapter

collars that go behind your meter, your electric meter. So basically, you know, you take off the meter, and actually you don't do this, you get an electrician to do this. To unplug unplug the meter. This thing goes on on the box and then the meter goes back on top of that. And so it's an adapter that goes in between your house and the meter. And it has a transfer switch in it and and an outlet.

So they've they've actually Generalink has actually been selling these for a few years. and I was I was looking at when this announcement came out, I was looking at DTE Energy, my local utility. They actually offer these already. so you know the the it's a two forty volt outlet. so and they offer they have thirty amp and forty amp versions of this. So if you have a a portable generator, you can plug your generator into that. So if your power goes out, you can plug in your generator and and then just

switch off some of the circuits in your house and and power stuff in your house without having extension cords running all over the place. and they if Ford is now partnering with these guys so that if you have a Ford truck an F one fifty with their pro power on board and you've got the two forty volt outlet, you can just it comes with a cord, you can just plug it right into this thing and powers your house and

lot easier and a lot cheaper than the the intelligent the power backup solution that they had for the lightning, which was that was like four thousand dollars just for the parts

Nicole Wakelin (1:24:26)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:24:26)
for the components and then thousands more to actually install it. And this thing

Roberto Baldwin (1:24:33)
I feel like it was more than four thousand, but it's a lot.

Nicole Wakelin (1:24:35)
Yeah, I think so.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:24:36)
no it was it was about four thousand for the for the components and then anywhere from four to fifteen thousand for installation depending on how your house was set up.

This thing is

Roberto Baldwin (1:24:44)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:24:45)
eleven hundred bucks and installation's like two hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty bucks typically.

Roberto Baldwin (1:24:51)
And then like anything you can you can set up to anything. It can be your Ford, it can be a a a generator, it can be a it could be a Hyundai with the little little vehicle to load thing if you're like if you're crazy.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:02)
Yeah, well except that one's only

that one's only hundred and twenty volt and this is set up for two hundred and forty volt.

Roberto Baldwin (1:25:09)
okay. You can get the

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:11)
but if you

Roberto Baldwin (1:25:12)
never mind. This is a completely different topic, has nothing to do with cars. I won't bring it up. Unless it's about chicken.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:19)
They also have a version, you know, if you're if you don't have a compatible meter, they have a version that can be mounted on the wall next to the meter box and then tied in. and that's that's a few hundred bucks more. But it's a it's an interesting solution. I I'm thinking about actually getting one of these.

Roberto Baldwin (1:25:35)
I mean it looks pretty cool it's pretty cool. I mean it's just sort of like, hey you have this extra thing. It's it's it's peace of mind.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:39)
Yeah. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:25:42)
Things go crazy. Like this is the easiest way for me is to plug things in. Without having to plug you know, like you said, a a spider web of

Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:52)
I I mean when we've had power outages,

that's that's what I've ended up with, you know, 'cause I've I've had a a portable gas generator, you know, for years. and so whenever we have a power outage, you know, I have extension cords running all over the house. It's it's insane. Really unsafe. But sometimes you know, sometimes you know,

Nicole Wakelin (1:26:11)
I look really unsafe, but I do it anyway.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:26:13)
when it's you know, zero degrees outside, you you need you need to have something going.

Roberto Baldwin (1:26:20)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:26:22)
let's see, what else? let's see, we talk about that. so Stellantis and Mobile I made an announcement the other day. Like when Stellantis had their investor day back in May, they announced a deal with Wave for their next generation hands free and also eventually level three systems that are gonna be coming. That's gonna be coming after twenty twenty eight. But

They're

they're gonna be part they're gonna be they already have mobile I based systems in their V in some of their vehicles now. And so they're upgrading that to mobilize cloud enhanced ADAS. So what that's doing is it's adding mobilized map system in there, their their road experience management map system. And it should make their hands-free systems that they have in like the Ram fifteen hundreds and the Jeep Grand Cherokees, and the Waggoneers.

perform much, much better. and that's th that's

Roberto Baldwin (1:27:24)
that's cool.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:27:25)
coming in twenty twenty seven.

Nicole Wakelin (1:27:27)
I mean that's good. Anything that makes the systems a little bit smoother, a little bit less intrusive to your driving experience is a good thing.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:27:34)
Yeah, well I mean the the

the key to the the mobile I map system is it's crowdsourced. So they collect data from millions of cars that are already on the road. And so they get millions of miles of updated map data every day. And so they they're looking for differences from their existing map, anything that's changed, for road configuration has changed. So they're getting data about, you know, stationary objects around the road for localization, but also getting data about

where people actually drive on the road

Roberto Baldwin (1:28:06)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:28:07)
and and aggregating that. So, you know, where in the lane are are drivers typically going or you know when when they're going around corners, what is the actual trajectory the drivers are taking? and putting integrating all that into their ADAS control to for their path planning and makes it should make it a lot better, a lot a lot more a lot safer, a lot more robust.

yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (1:28:33)
That's good. Good improvements coming. Yep.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:28:36)
and then Amnon Shashua, who's the founder and CEO of Mobileye, announced that he's gonna be retiring. he's been CEO of the company since nineteen ninety-nine when he founded it.

Nicole Wakelin (1:28:47)
Wow.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:28:48)
And he's he's sixty-six now. and he's gonna be stepping down. They're doing a the board is doing a search for a successor, and once they identify a successor, he will become the chairman of the board and somebody else will be taking over Mobileye.

Nicole Wakelin (1:29:03)
Good for him stepping back.

Roberto Baldwin (1:29:03)
Take o

take up his true passion, needle play.

Nicole Wakelin (1:29:09)
Ha ha ha.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:29:10)
I don't know. I Amnon doesn't strike me as the needlepoint type of person. He's

Nicole Wakelin (1:29:15)
You don't

Roberto Baldwin (1:29:15)
I

mean it's a

Nicole Wakelin (1:29:15)
think?

Roberto Baldwin (1:29:16)
it's a little problem you gotta solve. It's like it takes a long time. There's data points except they're needles.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:29:18)
Yeah, could be. It he

every year

Nicole Wakelin (1:29:24)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:29:24)
at at CES he does he does a presentation where he talks about you know the latest and their their technology. actually really i yeah, if you're if you're interested in driver assist systems and automated driving systems, it's always very educational, very interesting to listen to him talk.

and then Honda Honda's got some news. they released a teaser image for the new Ridgeline, the next generation Ridgeline.

And there it is there, if you're watching. It's coming in twenty

Roberto Baldwin (1:29:59)
All right. There's a s there's a truck.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:30:02)
twenty eight. It's still truck shaped, but like the front end of it

Nicole Wakelin (1:30:06)
It's still truck shaped.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:30:08)
yeah, the front end of it looks a lot more like the passport now.

Roberto Baldwin (1:30:12)
yeah.

I w I will tell you that that my wife got into the ridge line and she's like, is this an E V? I'm all no She's like

Sam Abuelsamid (1:30:20)
Ha ha

Nicole Wakelin (1:30:21)
It is it is very

yeah, it is it does look like the passport. I mean, that makes sense. They're gonna make things sort of all fall in line with the design aesthetic of the moment for their company.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:30:32)
Little

a little more rugged looking. it is gonna be a hybrid.

Nicole Wakelin (1:30:35)
Mm-hmm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:30:36)
So it's gonna use their their new tu dual clutch hybrid system. which I had a chance to drive that last fall in Japan when I was in Japan. but yeah, that's that should be coming in twenty twenty eight. And then finally I think this is the last one. Yeah. Honda is

At least temporarily, discontinuing manual transmissions from the Civic SI and the Integra A spec.

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:06)
Da

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:08)
Yeah. They're they're still trying to get clarification on what the the twenty twenty seven emissions regulations are in the US.

Nicole Wakelin (1:31:16)
Ha

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:18)
because you know, somebody's been making changes there and they're not quite sure exactly what what the rules are.

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:23)
What's happening?

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:25)
And so they're not sure if the manual transmission integra and civic SI actually will pass. So so they're just gonna stop building manual transmission versions of those two cars now, which is a shame.

I had the Integra ace back with the six speed manual a couple of months ago. Really like that. It was pretty sweet.

Nicole Wakelin (1:31:45)
Very cool.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:46)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:31:47)
You know at the bottom and the there's a there's a I don't typically read the comments, but this this person is Gordon S says, Great, now watch every dealer add an even larger markup to these cars. Yep That's

what's gonna happen.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:31:58)
You bet. Extra five grand,

Nicole Wakelin (1:32:00)
Exactly what's gonna

happen. Yep.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:32:02)
maybe ten.

all right. We got a couple of listener emails. first up from Tom, one of our Patreon supporters. he wanted to get a little more information on Nicole's car hunt. So we learned last week that you bought your you ordered the BMW three forty I.

Nicole Wakelin (1:32:25)
Yes.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:32:26)
And so Tom asks, it would be nice to hear what other vehicles Nicole looked at and how she made her decision. And how also how about once a month you picked your favorite vehicle in categories you decide, like best SUV under fifty grand, best manufac maxure best manufacturer of EVs, etc. we can we'll we'll we'll consider that for the future. But how did how did you what else did you shop for when you looked at the BMW?

Nicole Wakelin (1:32:53)
I well I started off looking

for an SUV because I always I just was thinking like two SUV. That was just where my brain was, which when I really thought about I don't need an SUV. I don't need that much cargo room. I don't have that much many people. It's you know, normally just if we're going out with another couple and that's about it. So then I sort of flipped to sedan. But I started actually looking at a Porsche Makan. but my problem with that was that I want the gas one, not the electric, which you can still get.

But the interior of the gas, like all the infotainment and everything of that month, is not is kind of dated. Like they've updated the electric version, so it's very modern. They hadn't with the gas version because they weren't going forward with it. So it just didn't I couldn't reconcile the two pieces together. So that was off my list. I looked at an X3. because again I was on this like SUV kick and then it was just like, okay, it's fine. And then I thought, wait a minute, wait, why don't I do a sedan?

And when it came to sands, I actually looked at a Panamera because I love that thing. so that was on my list. And then I looked at the M3 and M340i, and that was how I I my process. I didn't I wanted it to be something that was more of a l performance luxury kind of vehicle. I didn't look at Mercedes at all because Mercedes just doesn't speak to me. I mean there's no real reason. I just didn't. and I find Audi's kind of like they're just they're they're just not exciting. They're they're fine.

They're just fine. And I didn't want a fine car. I wanted something that made me feel good driving it. And that's how I landed where I landed. That's it.

Roberto Baldwin (1:34:28)
Ta da.

Nicole Wakelin (1:34:29)
That's the full story.

Roberto Baldwin (1:34:32)
I I had a friend, it's let's Micah Muzio, he works he worked at KPB for like 18 years or anyway. He was an automotive journalist for I was, we've known each other forever. We were in a punk band when he was in his teens and I was in my early twenties. so so he bought a del Sol. And I'm like, Well, what if you know, more than you and the other person want to go? He's like, I don't know, they can drive their own car. And I ended up buying that del Sol from him later on.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:34:57)
that's the one you had?

Nicole Wakelin (1:34:58)
Did you?

Roberto Baldwin (1:34:58)
Yeah, so I bought Micah's Del Sol.

But like that like I like he's like, Well, I don't know, they could just figure it out. And I was like, You're right. I can just buy whatever I want. It's not my job to be everyone's taxi driver.

Nicole Wakelin (1:35:11)
There you go.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:13)
Nice.

Roberto Baldwin (1:35:13)
Like I have

the BRZ and if like hey the six people are gonna go I'm like yeah but I only got the BRZ today, so I guess I don't know. We can all take a bus?

Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:20)
Somebody also have to drive too.

Roberto Baldwin (1:35:22)
Yeah. We'll figure it out.

Nicole Wakelin (1:35:24)
Yeah, so that's

Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:24)
Fair enough.

Nicole Wakelin (1:35:25)
it. That's how I picked it.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:28)
Cool. All right. and then we also got one from from Ed, and says great show and insight as always. I believe you mentioned that Hyundai and Kias will be going back to more physical controls. I looked at Hyundai's new infotainment system on the new Kona, and it's a Tesla style system. So I did some digging around because I hadn't seen any announcement from Hyundai of a new Kona yet. and there was a video that popped up

About a month ago, maybe six weeks ago, that I found on YouTube. and there there have been some spy photos of next generation Kona that were taken in Europe recently. and so, you know, the design of that one looks quite a bit different from the the current generation, but there's no interior shots of this. So the guy whoever it was that created this video

Did a bunch of renders, you know, based on these presumably based on these

spy shots. And so these are all AI renders. and I'll I'll include a

Roberto Baldwin (1:36:37)
So we just guessed.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:36:38)
link to this in the in the show notes. and there's there's a a render of an interior that has this big massive screen across the middle of the dashboard. that there's

Yeah, there there's no evidence that Hyundai is actually planning on anything even remotely like this for the new Kona.

Nicole Wakelin (1:37:01)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:03)
Why would you even write

this article? I that's my whole thing based on this video. This is just alright, whatever, man. Do whatever you gotta do, I guess.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:09)
I don't know. AI slop.

Nicole Wakelin (1:37:09)
I mean people do stuff, yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:13)
AI slop. It's not a real thing, but I made some stuff up. And then you present it as real reality

Nicole Wakelin (1:37:18)
Yep.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:18)
Well, somebody else made

Nicole Wakelin (1:37:19)
As facts.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:19)
it up and presented it and then

this person did this or

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:23)
Wrote an article.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:24)
wrote an article about the slop that somebody else created.

Nicole Wakelin (1:37:27)
Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:29)
Yes. Alright, I'm just gonna close

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:32)
So

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:32)
this tab. I feel a I feel worse off having clicked on it.

Nicole Wakelin (1:37:34)
I'm just gonna cross close

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:35)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (1:37:35)
this down. I can't look at it anymore.

Roberto Baldwin (1:37:37)
I feel like

I feel dirty, I'm gonna wash my finger my clicking finger.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:39)
it and then Yeah. Ed Ed Ed goes on.

Says, one question on Kia's weird climate control screen that seems to be blocked by the steering wheel and stocks. is that actually usable when driving? does it hinder actual functionality like turning on and off the AC, recirculation and defroster, which is a safety issue. So I think you the the telluride's got this screen in there. Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:38:02)
I was just in the to tell you right. It has a

Nicole Wakelin (1:38:03)
Mm.

Roberto Baldwin (1:38:04)
screen. There is a little arrow next to the screen between the main screen and the info and the the screen that you can't see with all the the the the settings. Like so you can turn like, you know, you make it hotter, colder. But you can hit the little arrow and like the thing popped like all like what is it? controls pop to the main screen. Yeah. I

Sam Abuelsamid (1:38:23)
does it? I had no idea.

Roberto Baldwin (1:38:25)
don't know I don't know if that's brand new. I just test I just found it out, you know, I just tested it yesterday. Yesterday.

Yes, yesterday. and it like pops stuff over to the to the right screen. So I mean most of the time I just turn it on. I you know, I make it hot, I make it cold, I'm I'm mostly doing that and I'm moving vents. I'm most Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:38:44)
yeah, I see the arrow. I'm looking at I'm looking at a picture of the interior right now.

Roberto Baldwin (1:38:48)
Yeah,

Nicole Wakelin (1:38:48)
Okay.

Roberto Baldwin (1:38:48)
you hit that little arrow and like it pops stuff over to the right. So it's not completely yes, you can use it.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:38:55)
But you kinda have to tilt your head around Yeah.

Roberto Baldwin (1:38:55)
But also it's you have to like move your head around it's

it's it's just a weird, weird thing that they did. It makes absolutely no sense. It's it needs to go away as quickly as possible. the the you know the flip side of the is the the lights and some other controls are on the left hand side of the screen on the gravity and they are on the screen. There's no like buttons. But I can see them because they have that weird like steering wheel that is not it's not a you know, it's not a yoke.

It's got a top to it so it you know, you can still like, you know, kinda shuffle drive shuffle steer with it, which I I I kept thinking about like whether or not I should talk about shuffle steering with those types of steering wheels. Because like do does the average person shuffle steer? Is or is that just a thing that you know we learn how to do when we're we're driving on ice? Is the average person just go while we're all like Anyway, so yeah, so it's yeah, it's it does like move things over. I'm like, okay, cool. And then I went back to driving. So

Sam Abuelsamid (1:39:55)
Yeah. So yeah, the the telluride and and others, yeah, they other kias, you know, they do have manual like physical controls for temperature and fan speed, and mode that are just below the center vents. And the vents of course are manual. So

Roberto Baldwin (1:40:10)
Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:11)
so it's not it's not a you know, th that that little bit of screen there I guess you you can make it easier to use. and then, you know, you do have physical controls for some of the other primary stuff.

Roberto Baldwin (1:40:22)
It's it it's

it's it's still bad it's still a bad idea. It's what it it's and it's not there's nothing

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:26)
Yeah. No, I I agree.

Roberto Baldwin (1:40:27)
there's nothing redeeming about the idea of putting the the all your climate control like you c all the controls are there. Like you can do all the other stuff, but like the main stuff you need y is there's a physical button which is just make it hot, make it cold.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:39)
Yeah.

Nicole Wakelin (1:40:40)
Mm.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:41)
and then for background I tried to convince my parents not to get the sportage because of the dual use media and climate controls. So this is a thing that the key is moving away

Roberto Baldwin (1:40:49)
yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:50)
from. We've got it this is the w the most annoying thing in our E V six. There's this this

Nicole Wakelin (1:40:54)
it was terrible.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:40:55)
touch strip below the dashboard that you you toggles between climate controls and media controls. and we actually just leave it on climate control all the time and just use the

The volume control on the steering wheel.

Roberto Baldwin (1:41:10)
Yeah, that's what I end up doing whenever whenever I had that when I had the last key I had where I had that, I was just like, I'm done. I I I'm not gonna even turn it over to media controls.

Nicole Wakelin (1:41:17)
Ha ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:41:19)
It's it's just it's an it's a pain. And I just started using the steering wheel and then yeah. And then if you're using CarPlay or or whatever, you can like, you know, go forward, go back on your music. You try, Ed, you tried. We we salute you.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:41:31)
All right. Well, before we go Yep. Yes.

Roberto Baldwin (1:41:35)
'Cause they get you know, and I know they're gonna ch you they've talked about they're gonna change it 'cause everyone complained, which is good. but also, yeah. well we'll we'll see how your parents I mean, they might do the same thing, just

Nicole Wakelin (1:41:46)
Ha ha.

Roberto Baldwin (1:41:46)
leave it on climate control.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:41:48)
Huh.

Nicole Wakelin (1:41:49)
Never change it.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:41:51)
well before we go, we do have some sad news to share with you. Nicole.

Nicole Wakelin (1:41:58)
Yes. So this is my last episode that I will be on. and the reason is not that I have finally gotten tired of Sam and Robbie. I'm not tired of them at all.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:42:07)
Although we would understand if that was the case.

Roberto Baldwin (1:42:09)
She's been tired

of us for at least eight months. So it's not that's that's

Nicole Wakelin (1:42:11)
Right, at least.

I've actually retiring altogether. I'm stepping out of automotive. I've resigned from the juries I was on and my official date in my head is August first. So that means no more podcasts for me. No more

Roberto Baldwin (1:42:25)
Well

Nicole Wakelin (1:42:26)
Sam and Robbie and me. So I will miss everybody. I I thoroughly enjoyed doing this. It's so much fun. Sam and Robbie, you've been great. All the listeners and the people that I've

come into contact with over the years have been fabulous and I shall miss you all. But I am going to go and own my own time and do my own thing. me needlepoint. Wasn't that what you were saying idiot with a guy from Mobile Eye. We we have a club.

Roberto Baldwin (1:42:41)
Needle point. Needle point. Needle You can hang out with the guy from a while.

Nicole Wakelin (1:42:48)
We have a club. We're gonna needlepoint together.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:42:49)
You you and Amnon.

Nicole Wakelin (1:42:51)
me and Amnon, we got

Roberto Baldwin (1:42:51)
You and Amnon.

Nicole Wakelin (1:42:51)
a thing going on with Needlepoint. Yeah. So yeah, so this is my last official podcast and and so it's a goodbye and thanks for all the fish and you guys will be missed. So

Sam Abuelsamid (1:43:01)
Well, you know,

when when you do get your BMW, if you feel like, you know, popping in to just, you know, share some thoughts about it, you're always welcome to join us.

Nicole Wakelin (1:43:08)
Maybe I will.

Maybe I will pop in and chat with you guys. I can stand in for somebody

Roberto Baldwin (1:43:12)
You can do a cameo.

Nicole Wakelin (1:43:13)
one day. I could do a cameo from inside my car.

Roberto Baldwin (1:43:17)
Like,

hey your glasses. Yeah, well we're gonna miss you. I'm sad now.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:43:19)
Well, we will we will genuinely miss you, Nicole. And we we won't we

Nicole Wakelin (1:43:22)
I will miss you guys as well.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:43:24)
will have news for you about who will be stepping into Nicole's seat soon.

Nicole Wakelin (1:43:29)
Mm. Yes. Bye everybody. I feel sad.

Roberto Baldwin (1:43:31)
I don't even know who it is.

Sam Abuelsamid (1:43:34)
Bye.

Nicole Wakelin (1:43:35)
Bye, guys.